Story of My Unfortunate Life
by Serobrilium
Summary: Everything is 'normal' at Kadic High when an exchange student named Sero transfers from the states and when he moves into his new dorm, he finds love and MUCH more! Will Sero survive the dangers of XANA and himself? UXO, OCXJ, and some YxA. Rated M for third-base Yaoi and swearing. Lyoko and XANA. Journal prologue, and first/third person.
1. My Horrible Family

Hello Everyone! This is my first fanfic so I'm going to try my best. NOTE: this chapter will be the only one journal-based with the rest of the chapters being first and third Point of View.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: Sero is my original character, and NOT based off any of the approx. nine stories on Fanfic i found with "Sero" in it at the time of this writing, so don't say that I ripped him off from one of the nine stories.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

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_April 16__th__, 20XX_

An orphan, that's what I am and always will be, and moving to this French boarding school won't change it. Kadic? I can't remember the name of the place. The flight from the states has been tough for me since my lack of biological and adoptive parent's care (as if they had any to begin with) for me. Part of me thinks that this will be a good place to stay for god knows how long, and another part says that I'll most likely hate this place for even longer, and another part says that this will be an adventure for me.

Nonetheless, I must stick through this, since I will be safe from my ignorant/abusive family back home who wants nothing from me. The worst thing related to them that I can't remove is my name, Sero. What type of name is that? If only I could just change my name, I don't know to what, but anything besides mine. At least I am able to get away with not using either of my surnames, which both share horrible history.

I'm still not sure why I kept this journal all these years; my horrible handwriting will just make me forget how to decipher this entry of mine a few days from now and I can't even remember why I keep this thing. Maybe it just kept me sane for all these years as an emotional thunder-rod.

Wow, I just forgot that yesterday was my 16th birthday; this move HAS been a bit much…

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_April 17__th__, 20XX_

Finally, I just finished moving into my new dorm plus I (reluctantly) met my new dorm neighbors, Ulrich Stern and Odd Della Robbia. They seemed nice and a bit in love for each other, but it didn't bother me a bit since I consider myself homosexual too, which I told them about and they said they were okay with it too. Either way, neither of them were my type, but that other kid, Jeremie was it? He could be my perfect match. His hair, eyes, and his body were perfect eye candy to me for the scant moments when I saw him. But unfortunately I was never able to get him to notice me, let alone talk to him.

Also a strange thing happened today, it seemed that time… went back? I'm not sure, but the day seemed to have redone itself with a white light. Another thing that caught my attention was that sometimes I saw this dark smoke of some kind, but I didn't pay attention to it since I had to study for some work from Mrs. Hertz's class today. I also seem to share most of my classes with Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie.

I saw an Asian girl with a pink-haired lady sit by the three during lunch; apparently their names are Yumi and Aelita. I assume that the five of them hang out with each other. If I only had the nerve to talk to Jeremie, but my damned nervousness including my natural introverted nature scared me away from him and well, pretty much everyone else at this boarding school. I swear during lunch I thought I heard a girl try to hit on me but I ignored her, cursing the small percentage of women for their relentless behavior to date all men within a five-mile radius.

Damn, I've written too long and/or too slow, it's nearing midnight and Jim the P.E teacher is making his midnight rounds to make sure everyone is asleep, time to go and see if the next day will be any better than today…

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**AN: ** More or less just a small prologue, But next chapter up in who knows when! Hopefully very soon, but I may get distracted by school and other stuff, so keep your head up!


	2. A New Lover?

Hello everyone! I can't believe I already have a new chapter up within such a short amount of time, I guess I'm just so impatient. :] Jeremie-based chapter.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

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Jeremie woke up early today, mainly due to his surprising choice to attempt to get his full eight hours of sleep instead of the usual 4. Jeremie looked at his alarm clock which read 5:30 AM, April 17th. He sighed to himself, due to classes starting at 7:30 AM with Breakfast at 7:05 AM. Nonetheless he decided to get out of bed and burn some time on his laptop.

"Shit." Jeremie said to himself as he saw the time being 6:55 AM. After turning off the laptop, he decided to get dressed and do the rest of his morning routine with the exception of showering because he took one last night. After all of that was done, he checked the time, which said 7:10 AM. Seeing as there was nothing else to do, he went to get breakfast, but as he opened the door, Ulrich was there about to knock.

"Oh wow, are you okay Jeremie? usually you are plugged into that laptop." Ulrich said with very slight concern. "Oh haha, very funny." Jeremie said, "So I assume you came to tell me that its breakfast now."

"Yes, and I'm sure you don't want Odd to eat everything." Ulrich said with a small bit of laugher.

"Fine, I'm coming." Jeremie said. And with that, the two went to go get breakfast.

* * *

It was 7:13 AM when Jeremie and Ulrich got to the food court and sat down with Odd after grabbing their plates of food, who managed to grab several muffins.

"Hey don't look now Einstein, but it's that new Kid from the States." Said Odd, who absent-mindedly pointed at the male exchange student sitting by himself at the wall away from the tables, eating his food in utter silence.

The foreign exchange student was wearing simple blue jeans with an all-black hoodie with the hood down. He also had an odd snake/thunderbolt-like symbol that was medium dark green on the center of his hoodie. He also had a large, black and blue backpack which nearly looked as big as him. Jeremie got a look at his face and saw that he had acne, though not as bad as herb's but still noticeable, his hair was short with a blond-ish brown tone including a long, thin streak of dark green hair that started from his scalp and went down to his forehead, passing his blond-brown hair. Jeremie couldn't tell if it was natural or just hair dye from the distance. His facial expression also showcased his loneliness, he had a near constant neutral expression and wore glasses like Jeremie, but thinner and less bulky. After that, he noticed that the student was underweight, but just slightly bigger than Odd. Jeremie also noticed his small stature, who was barely bigger than a metre and a half.

"What's his name?" Jeremie asked to Ulrich and Odd, who was busy stuffing his face down (Just how did he stay thin or as he prefers to say, Svelte?).

"I think his name is Sero, we talked to him when he was moving into his dorm, Nice guy, but he prefers to keep to himself." Ulrich said, after taking one of his muffin. "You should try talking to him, he told me and Odd that he is homo, if you think you can get him to talk." He added with a grin on his face.

"I wish I could, but I need to study since I actually tried to get more than four hours of sleep." Jeremie said before pushing his plate to Odd, who took his food happily. Jeremie then took out a book and a pencil from his backpack, and started to study some work from Mrs. Hertz. After about twenty minutes, everyone went to their classes.

* * *

"Good morning students, I hope everyone got good sleep?" Mrs. Hertz said to her students right as Sero walked in the room. "Ah there you are! Everyone this is Sero, a foreign exchange student from the United States. Sero, please introduce yourself to everyone." Sero simply waved before moving to the empty seat in the back corner.

"Not a man of words huh?" Odd said while Yumi and Aelita walked in the class holding hands. After noticing that just about everyone was staring, they let go with blushes on their faces.

"So Jeremie, ever gonna pop the question?" Odd asked near the end of class who then sticked his tongue out at him playfully.

"I'm not sure Odd, and besides, it's a bit obvious that he prefers only himself." Jeremie said truthfully. (But damn, he is cute. I really should find a time to talk with him.)

"Is there something you wanted to say Odd?" Mrs. Hertz said, obviously mad that Odd wasn't paying attention as usual.

"No Mrs. Hertz, sorry." Odd said with a slightly disappointed look on his face. After that, the bell rang for passing period.

* * *

"Do you really think that he will go for me?" Jeremie said to the gang, who was eating lunch.

"I'm not sure Jeremie, he seems a bit distant, but he does seem to like you, as far as I can tell." Aelita said while she looked at the exchange student, who was sitting in the same spot during breakfast.

"And besides, it's gonna be a hopeless relationship if you don't make a move, he doesn't seem to be that kind of person. And he also taking a good look at you too Jeremie." Yumi added after taking a bite out of her crescent roll. Jeremie thought about looking back at him, but decided against it, as to not spook his potential lover.

"My advice Einstein? Try talking to him tomorrow, you'll have the best opportunity when he gets breakfast, that is if I don't eat it all by then." Odd said before he took a huge bite out of his apple while grinning.

"For once Odd, I'm taking your advice. Well I'm going to check for active towers." Jeremie said before sacrificing his food to Odd who took the free food with even more greatness on his face and got on his laptop.

"Hey look, Sissi is trying to score on Sero." Ulrich said. The gang watched as Sissi walked over to Sero and apparently, either Sero didn't notice her with his hood on and his iPod in his ears, or just simply ignored her. Either way, Sissi looked pissed and started walking away with Nick and Herb tailing behind.

"Well, now I'm already liking him, and he didn't even talk to us yet!" Aelita said, trying to hide her happiness.

Jeremie was about to shut down his laptop when a familiar image appeared. "XANA has an activated tower in the Polar Region! Let's go to the factory now." He added as the gang went to deactivate the tower.

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**AN:** Wow that was good In my opinion. Any ways, reviews please and follow if you want to!


	3. My Horrible Life

Wow, I still can't believe that I'm pumping these out so easily! Sero-based chapter now.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

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I woke up with a groan and a yawn, at least there was no one to share my room with or else I would go insane. looking at my alarm clock which said 6:00 AM, APRIL 18th, I gave myself some assurance. I always wanted to wake up early since my damned nervousness makes me extremely scared of showering with people nearby. Using this opportunity, I grabbed my clothes for the day, which included my casual jeans and my special hoodie along with socks and boxers, and went to the showers. luckily, no one else was there, I sighed in relief as I stripped down and went to shower, My natural streak of green hair went in front of my left eye. Sweeping it out of my eye, I started finished up, as I finished getting dressed, other students were pouring in, telling myself that it was about 6:45 AM.

"Well, at least I got some peace and quiet" I said as I went back to my room to finish my other routines of the day, which included brushing my teeth and then my hair, keeping my green streak between my eyes with a small bit of gel. finally done with my personal hygiene, I checked my phone which was more as a watch than an actual phone with how I used it, it said 7:05 AM which meant that it was time to go get breakfast now.

* * *

Making my way towards the food court, I saw Jeremie behind me as I got in line, but I didn't want to say anything to him as to spook him away from me and my love for him.

"Hello Sero, do you like it here?" Jeremie said to me as I was waiting for my food.

"Oh um, hi Jeremie, how are you? It's decent here." I said with some fright in my voice, I always hated social interaction, but I decided to suck it up since he could be in love with me and I WON'T let him go.

"Nothing much, do you want to eat with me and the others? I'm sure it's better than the cold wall." Jeremie said as Odd and Ulrich waved to the two while the pink-haired girl was focusing on her food.

I thought about this, but decided to agree and come since it will let me know Jeremie and his friends.

"Okay sure, good to know more than just myself at this school here." I said with a bit of nervousness in my voice.

"Don't worry, Odd and Ulrich will be nice, just don't try to crack a joke near Odd." Jeremie said with a smile and slight blush on his face as he took me to the table with Odd, Ulrich and that girl, Aelita? I can barely remember names, but I pushed my doubts away from my mind as I sat near Jeremie and Aelita.

"So this is the student that made Sissi go mad without even saying a word, I have to say, you know how to push buttons silently!" Aelita said with a face of satisfaction towards me as she was finishing her food.

"Well, lets just say I can use my ignorance of others to my own advantages." I said with a smug look on myself. Ignoring others was a talent of mine and I believe that girl Sissi is still mad at me for giving her my signature silent rejection.

"Either way, we thought that you could hang out with us. You know, so we can know each other better, just incase something happens." Ulrich said. Obviously, they all wanted to know me better and I didn't object. even though I want to be alone, it's always good to have a friend or two to back me up and it would let me get closer to Jeremie.

"Okay then, even I know that having a friend or two is good." I said, removing all fear and nervousness from my voice. I finally found a group to hangout with, and even I couldn't believe the speed at which I did it, usually it took half of a school year for just one person with the exception of the teachers, to know more about me than just my name, and I already have five friends just within the second day of being at this school.

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"So now that we told you about us, why not talk about yourself?" Jeremie said. me, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita, and of course, Jeremie himself were in Jeremie's dorm room. we met after our classes were done. After the other five talked about their own personal lives, they asked me about myself. I noticed that Jeremie had a killer computer set-up, definitely better than mine, but I always preferred a simple gaming laptop over his computer which seemed to have been completely decked out in nearly every single possible way.

"It is very complicated and will take a while, but here I go, excuse my nervousness please." I said to the group. I knew they were holding some information behind, but I decided to ignore it for now.

"It all started at birth, my biological mother and father were drunk at the time of my birth, so they couldn't think straight for my name, so my dad just blurted out 'Sero' and the doctor wasn't sure if they were serious so they just attached that name to me, like a curse." I said, taking a brief pause to catch my breath, I wasn't used to talking for this long. usually my average sentences are 'yes' and 'no' and 'go away'.

"Later when I was about five or six years old, my Biological parents became abusive towards each other and me. That day I decided to run away, becoming an orphan. what seemed like weeks later, I managed to find an orphanage. After staying there for a year, a family of three decided to adopt me." I said, taking in a long breath.

"But unfortunately, they were even worse than my original parents. After I managed to file for a lawsuit on accounts for child abuse which included a broken arm and a fractured spine, I was able to gain enough money from the lawsuit to keep myself in boarding schools for the rest of my life. after some deciding, I thought that going to France would be a great choice, as I had heard that the school system there was better than the states." I added taking in a longer breath, I have never talked this long in my life. I seriously thought that I would faint from all of my talking.

"After some school searching, I found the closest exchange school was Kadic High of course. And here I am now. I'm in my 10th grade, trying to live from one school to another. I have no idea what my life will be after graduating." I finished with a large inhale, I thought to myself that I would never talk that much ever again.

The five of them just stood in silence. Possibly from shock, and possibly from my unfortunate life.

"I've never known someone who could go through all that and could still come out sane." Odd said. He clearly wasn't in a joking mood after he and the others heard my story.

"How could someone do that to an only child?" Yumi said with worry in her voice.

"I don't know why, but the schools I have been to have been my only sanctuary of peace, and I have been able to recover fully from the incident." I added, showing my fully recovered arm and spine, which had scars all over them. I swear that Jeremie blushed with how he looked away.

"Well don't worry now, you are with us. You're safe now." Jeremie said while he placed his arm on my shoulder, I blushed at the contact and I swore that he did a bit too. I knew from that point on that my new friends would protect me and that I would help them when possible, and I knew that would help me and Jeremie's relationship advance.

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**AN:** Finally, my third chapter done so soon! review please, and hopefully another chapter will spring up to me soon!


	4. Breakfast with a side of XANA

Hello everyone! Time for a new chapter with XANA included. mostly Ulrich-based chapter.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

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Ulrich woke up with a shock. He had a dream about their new friend Sero and his first meeting with XANA, and the details made him enjoy it very little. While he thought about what it meant, Odd snored loudly into his pillow. Even though he did love Odd deeply, he always hated his extremely loud sleeping. He saw that the time was 6:45 AM April 19th, so he decided to attempt to wake Odd up.

"Wake up Odd, time to go to the showers if you want to get some food and hot water." Ulrich said, he wanted Odd to wake up, but wasn't sure whether he should talk about his dream. Unfortunately, he was still snoring with Kiwi by the edge of his bed.

"Wake up Odd or I'm giving all of my food to Sissi." Ulrich added with a smirk on his face, and just like that, Odd woke up as if someone just dumped cold water on his face.

"DON'T YOU DARE GIVE HER YOUR FOOD!" Odd said with what sounded like pure anger and fury.

"I'm just kidding man, now lets hit the showers." Ulrich said while trying to not laugh. he managed to kiss his lover to calm him down.

"Good thing it's Saturday today." Odd said with his usual grin on his face.

"Yeah. And you know it." Ulrich replied back.

"Let's hurry up or all the hot water will be gone!" Odd said back. Odd always was a fan of steamy showers...

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After hitting the showers and doing their morning routines, the couples fussed with their hands as they walked to the food court to get breakfast early on Saturdays, so everyone else was still in the showers or sleeping. Once they got their plates of food, they caught a glimpse of Sero and Jeremie kissing. They waved to the couple as they broke their kiss with embarrassment. Ulrich and Odd took a seat at their lunch table to see if anything _else_ was happening between the lovebirds.

"So I see that the two of you already made up for each other." Odd said with his trademarked grin.

"Uh..Umm.. Err..." Sero said dumbstruck while trying to hide his completely blushed face. he obviously doesn't know how to hide his affection very well.

"We were just getting to know each other better, honestly." Jeremie blurted out, rescuing his new lover from his wild emotions.

"Yes, we were doing that! Not what you were thinking." Sero said. his blushing was not well hidden.

"Oh come on Jeremie, we know that _more_ happened." Ulrich said with some cockiness in his voice. Jeremie quickly denied that statement with a 'no'. "Oh, umm Jeremie, I need to talk to you about something. In private." He added.

"Oh, okay then. Wait here Sero." Jeremie said. He kissed his new boyfriend on the cheek, then followed Ulrich.

* * *

"Well Ulrich, now that we are in private what now?" Jeremie said. He got used to using his own room as a bit of a confession stand, he just didn't like private matters on short notice.

"I had this dream Jeremie. It was about Sero and... XANA. It was fuzzy and I couldn't tell if XANA attacked him or... Possessed him. I'm not sure whether we should protect him or if we should tell him about... you know." Ulrich said. he wasn't much of a person to tell the dead truth, he was used to using some white lies here and there. But since Sero and Jeremie's relationship was blooming, he didn't hide a thing.

"Wait what? When did you have this dream?" Jeremie said quickly. Ulrich could easily tell that the two were perfect for each other, and his tone told Ulrich that he would sacrifice _anything_ for Sero.

"I had it last night, but the worst part is that it was happening in the morning. Like right _now_." Ulrich replied with some fear in himself.

"Got it. Scanning for activated towers." Jeremie said with haste in his voice. "There seems to be no-Wait, Activated tower in the Forest Region!" He nearly shouted.

"Call Yumi and Aelita, I'll tell Odd to go to the factory. I think staying here to help protect the school and Sero will be the best choice." Ulrich said to Jeremie. If Sero really is... No, he can't think of that now.

"Got it. sending automatic voice messages... Now." Jeremie said. "Go tell Odd, and make sure Sero doesn't.. Doesn't..." he couldn't finish his sentence.

"Don't worry Jeremie, you're my friend. I'm going now." Ulrich said, putting his hand on Jeremie's shoulder.

* * *

"So Sero, how is your relationship with Jeremie?" Odd said to Sero, who was finishing his food up.

"Besides that... Kiss you saw, we haven't done much." Sero said, he was still somehow blushing from that kiss Jeremie gave him before he went with Ulrich to talk about something.

"Oh don't worry about that. Me and Ulrich had much _WORSE_ incidents happen to us." Odd replied, slightly shaking when he thought of the time that Jeremie fainted when he walked in while him and Ulrich were having sex for the first time... "Just be careful to close your door and-LOOK OUT!" Odd screamed, pointing at the Spectre which was sneaking behind Sero. Thankfully it was early for a Saturday, so only Rosa was in the cafeteria.

'Wait what?' were Sero's only words as he looked behind him to see the Spectre possessing him. Sero kicked and nearly screamed before he got up with the eye of XANA replacing his pupil. He took one look at Odd before he flipped the table they were sitting on, nearly landing on Odd.

"ODD! XANA activated a tower! Get to the factory immediately!" Ulrich said right after noticing the eye of XANA in place of Sero's dark-green iris. "Don't worry about Sero, I got him!" Ulrich added after he made a lunge at Sero, motioning Odd to move.

"Aye-Aye! time to take out a tower in Lyoko!" Odd said, running out of the room before Sero pushed Ulrich off and threw another table at Odd.

"Come on Sero, its me, Ulrich! Stop fighting, XANA has controlled you!" Ulrich nearly screamed at Sero, hoping it would work. Unfortunately it didn't help the slightest bit, because Sero took only one look at him before shocking him and throwing Ulrich at the wall.

* * *

"Odd! You're here, anything happened at the school? Is Sero okay?" Jeremie said with worry. Odd was out of breath when he got to the scanner room. As he exited the elevator, Yumi got devirtualized.

"It's just your average XANA attack. Trust me Einstein, Ulrich has it under control, hopefully." Odd said, wheezing as he went to the scanner. He didn't want to tell Jeremie that Sero was XANA-Fied, or else Einstein may try to help Ulrich back at the cafeteria.

"I hope you're right Odd, I truly do." Jeremie said with slight sadness in his voice.

* * *

Ulrich was having no luck with Sero who was showing XANA's strength by Sero hurling him against the wall. Fortunately, Ulrich knew better than to take him head-on with an injured back. Unfortunately, Sero saw through his tricks and simply grabbed him.

"Sero please stop, stop before you..." Ulrich attempted to reason with him as he lost his breath, but it was useless as Sero started to electrocute him to death. Ulrich nearly thought that he was about to get fried then...

Then it all stopped. Sero let go of Ulrich and both fell to the ground, gasping for air. Ulrich mentally sighed in relief as a familiar white light covered both of them...

* * *

As the light of the return to the past went away, Ulrich found himself sitting at the lunch table with Jeremie, Odd and Sero.

"Umm guys, did time just go... Backwards? And I heard something about a XANA and Lyoko and why did a shadow possess me?" Sero asked with curiosity. Jeremie, Odd, and Ulrich glanced at each other. They had no idea what to say, it was as if the return to the past didn't affect Sero.

"Well guys? I mean you three don't look surprised at all. Is there something else going on?" Sero said, obviously he knew that his friends was hiding something.

After a short and silent talk between the three, Jeremie finally talked up, saying "Come to my room everyone, its best to talk about it in private." Sero looking slightly confused but then decided to follow the trio who saved him from the power of XANA.

* * *

"...And once a tower gets deactivated, XANA's influence on the world is weakened, well at least for a couple of days." Jeremie said, finishing his speech about Lyoko and XANA.

"I have only one question Jeremie; When can I help?" Sero said with a grin on his face.

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**AN:** Fourth chapter done! Review and follow if you want to.


	5. My Horrible Sleep

Hello readers! New chapter, Sero-Based chapter now.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

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I woke up from the same nightmare for the fifth time In a row, the one with XANA taking control of my body and making me nearly kill Ulrich. I looked at my alarm clock, which said 4:40 AM APRIL 24th. Yawning due to my lack of sleep, I decided to give up the possibility of going back to sleep. After checking the hallways for Jim, I snuck my way to the bathroom for peace and freedom from my mind.

After finishing my morning routines, I went to go get breakfast as it was nearing 7:00 AM. Sometime later, Jeremie, Odd and Ulrich sat at my table with my new boyfriend to my left and the other couple sat opposite of us. Jeremie decided to say something since he noticed my half-opened eyes and groggy expression.

"Are you okay Sero? You look like you haven't slept for a week." Jeremie said with worry in his voice. He placed his hand on my shoulder, trying to help me become aware of my surroundings.

Looking around before speaking, I decided to tell the group. "I've been having nightmares… About XANA controlling me. I haven't been getting any sleep for the last five days. I just don't know what to do guys." I said while trying to hold back a tear, I wasn't sure what else to say my friends.

After a short pause, Jeremie decided to speak up. "Well, I DO have one possible solution in mind and I think you may like it." He said with a smile.

"Einstein, are you thinking what I'm thinking? Odd said with a grin while Ulrich gave a similar look.

* * *

"Get over here, before someone sees us." Ulrich said, motioning his hand to me in the middle of the night. Before moving out of the bush, I took a mental note of the area in the likely case that I got lost in the forest. "What are you waiting for? Hurry up before Jimbo catches us." Odd said, looking around the forest.

"Down here." Ulrich said, pointing at the slightly rusted manhole cover. "I swear this thing gets heavier each time we get here." He added with a small groan as he heaved the cover off of the manhole. After going down into the sewers, Odd pointed towards two skateboards and one scooter. "So which one do you want to take?" Odd asked me.

"Will 'None of the above' work as well?" I said with a smirk as I tapped the tip of my shoes on the ground, releasing the wheels from my shoes.

"I don't normally allow off-paper answers, but that will pass for now." Odd said with a bit of a surprised look on his face.

"Come on guys. Aelita and Yumi are waiting at the factory in case of a XANA attack." Jeremie said while he grabbed his scooter while Ulrich got on his skateboard. Odd and I looked at each other before he grabbed his skateboard while I started to gain speed on my roller-shoes.

* * *

As we exited the elevator, I looked around the room. "Wow, this place looks so… so…" I couldn't find my words as I looked at everything. My nervous personality forces me to look at every detail of a place I haven't been to.

"Awesome?" Aelita said to me as I continued looking around, noticing a computer attached to the ceiling and a hologram of what I assumed was Lyoko in the center of the room.

"I… I guess so." While I didn't doubt the existence of Lyoko after my… Experience, I still found the mental picture in front of me breathtaking. "So, how do I get into Lyoko?" I asked Jeremie.

"Take the elevator down to the scanners. Aelita and Ulrich will join you after you get virtualized." He said back.

Once the elevator door opened, I noticed three pod-like things that I assume are the scanners. "What do I do now Jeremie?" I said, trying to shout but due to my quiet nature, it was like normal speech to everyone else.

"Get in a scanner, the supercomputer will virtualize you into Lyoko. You will go first if something happens." Jeremie said from above.

"Transfer Sero." Jeremie said. Once the scanner doors closed, I started breathing rapidly as my throat tightened in fear; I've always had a fear of close spaces.

"Umm Jeremie, is it a bit late to say that I'm claustrophobic?" I said between short breaths. "Sorry Sero, but I can't just stop the process of the virtualization." I heard Jeremie say somewhere outside of the scanner.

"Scanner Sero." Jeremie said. Once he said those words, I instinctively closed my eyes as a bright light surrounded me.

"Virtualization." Once that happened, I blacked out.

* * *

When I found my consciousness, I fell to the snowy ground of Lyoko's Ice Sector. Looking around, I saw that I was on the edge of a large, flat iceberg with what looked like a Way tower based on how the others described them. Inspecting myself, I had an emerald-jade scythe with a handle made of a dark metal. While looking at a reflection in the digital sea, I was impressed as I saw myself wearing dark-gray robes covering my entire body with an intricate deep green pattern hovering above my robes. But the strangest part was that in place of my face, there was only a dark shadow. After hearing a sound, I looked behind me as I saw Aelita and Ulrich get virtualized into Lyoko.

"So Sero, enjoying the new look?" Aelita said to me.

"Definitely my style, makes me look like a fancy Grim Reaper. So Jeremie, is there anything special that I can do?" I said to the virtual sky above me.

"That's weird… You only have 50 life points instead of the usual 100. But back to your abilities. your first one lets you become ethereal, like a ghost. Your other ability is a pair of wings like Aelita's, but I think you want to try the former first. Try imagining yourself as being invisible, but be careful! There is a 'Sanity' percentage meter by your ID card and I can't figure what it is at the moment." Jeremie said. Taking his advice, I imagined myself becoming invisible. After opening my eyes, I looked at myself to see only my scythe levitating where my left hand was holding it.

After about twenty seconds of checking out my invisible self, I decided to talk. "Wow this is awesome! Thanks Jeremi-" I cut myself off as I held my hands to my head as if it was being split into two. Blinking rapidly, I saw everything in red and involuntarily charged at Aelita, who couldn't react. "Help me, I can't control myself!" I shouted as I failed to stop myself from swinging my scythe at Aelita but in the nick of time, Ulrich's katana stopped my scythe inches away from Aelita and instinctively kicked me away from her. Breaking out of my bloodlust, I managed to make myself visible again and slowly regain control of myself.

"Hey Jeremie can you explained what just happened? One second Sero was completely fine but now he almost tried to devirtualize Aelita!" Ulrich shouted to Jeremie, who was at the supercomputer. "I think I figured it out. Sero, your sanity meter went down as you stayed in your ghostly form. The meter is now at 50% and is slowly rising back up now, so only use it as a last resort. I have no idea what could happen if it ever reaches 0%" Jeremie said from his seat.

"Now that I had time to show off and nearly devirtualize Aelita, can we go back now?" I asked. While I did want to stay in Lyoko, I wasn't up to unintentionally killing my friends.

"Negative, there is an activated tower in the Ice Region. It's not far so you don't need your vehicles." Jeremie said. "I'm virtualizing the others, so stay put."

"I'm sorry Aelita and Ulrich, I just couldn't control myself. It felt like something else controlled me, but it didn't feel like XANA." I said to the two. "Don't worry Sero, you had no control and you didn't know better." Ulrich said to me as he pat his hand on my back. "And apology accepted." Aelita said as she smiled at me like I had never tried to kill her. I heard a sound behind me as Odd and Yumi got virtualized into Lyoko.

"Ready to help us with your first tower?" Yumi said with optimism in her voice.

"Why not?" I said with a smile on my face.

* * *

**AN:** Sorry for the delay, school is going into testing and I couldn't focus on this as much as I wanted to. Review and follow if you want!

**NOTE #2:** with school going into motion, expect these updates to slow down. BUT, at the very least I will try to do one chapter weekly.


	6. Love and Influenza is in the Air

Hello everyone! New chapter up now. A varied chapter up now.

Sorry for the delay and the early break of my promise. Funeral services (As Jim would say "I'd rather not talk about it.) + no access to computer = no work done.

INCOMING LEMON! Not really, but more of a detailed kiss scene.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

* * *

Jeremie woke up from a knock on his door. Rubbing his eyes, he checked his alarm clock which said 2:40 AM APRIL 27th. Opening the door, he saw Jim holding a portable mini-mattress. Jeremie also noticed Sero, who looked as tired as him, standing behind Jim.

"Wha-whats going on Jim?" Jeremie said while he rubbed his eyes again, making sure that he wasn't dreaming.

"Sero's room has a water pipe leak. He asked me if he could sleep with you until we fix it. I have to ask you first of course." Jim replied, not before covering a cough. Jeremie took a look at Sero, whose soaked pajamas confirmed the story.

"Umm yeah that's perfectly okay with me." Jeremie said, noticing a smile from his boyfriend, which made him blush.

"Very well then. Mr. Sero, be nice with Belpois and I don't want to see anyone else leaving their rooms now!" Jim shouted, setting up the mini-mattress before leaving the room.

"Mr. Sero?" Jeremie asked Sero, curious about the title Jim used.

"I prefer to not use either of my families' surname mainly due to… You know." He said. After telling the gang his life story, I understood his reason for only using his first name. "By the way, got any spare pajamas I can wear? These aren't good for sleeping in now." He added.

"I do, but they are a bit big for you. If you don't mind of course."

"You _know_ I don't mind." Sero said, not before stealing a kiss and a smile from Jeremie. Jeremie couldn't help to stop himself from blushing.

"Even though we both know that we love each other, I need some shuteye now. So goodnight." Jeremie said, before going back to his bed and pulling his blanket over himself.

"You can change now, I'm not looking and my spare pajamas are in the bottom of my dresser." Jeremie added, keeping his eyes on the wall. Sure he wanted to see _more_ of his lover, but he didn't want to look like a pervert. After hearing the dresser close, he pulled his bed sheets over him. Closing his eyes, he went to sleep.

* * *

Jeremie woke up when he heard Odd, Ulrich, and Sero walking into the room. "So your water pipe just cracked when sleeping?" Odd asked Sero, who was in his normal attire minus his hoodie, which revealed a plain clover-green shirt. "yeah it was the strangest thing! At least it was only me and my bed that got wet." Sero replied back. Seeing that Jeremie was still in bed, he said "So I guess you don't know what time it is?"

"Please just tell me that today is a weekend..." Jeremie said, yawning again.

"And your assumption is correct Einstein, today is Sunday." Ulrich said.

"But maybe you should still check the time." Odd said, who looked like he already took Jeremie's serving of breakfast for the day. Taking his advice, Jeremie looked at his alarm clock which read 9:09 AM April 27th.

"Crap, how did I sleep through breakfast?" Jeremie said, coughing afterwards. He has been on a decent sleep schedule since XANA's attacks have slowed down recently.

"You got a cold Jeremie? It sounds kinda bad to me." Sero told Jeremie, Covering a couple of coughs. "Oh come on, now I got it too!" He added with several more coughs.

"Don't you dare give it to us!" Odd and Ulrich said simultaneously. Jeremie and Sero couldn't blame them. Flu season was slowly starting up for Kadic and no one was in the mood to get sick, especially since the second semester was filled with school dances.

"Oh calm down you two, it's just a cough, not the black plague." Jeremie said, covering a cough. "And besides, all students sick with the flu are quarantined in their dorm rooms until it passes over."

"Wait, what? So does that mean that... that..." Sero said with some anxiety in his voice. Unfortunately for Sero, he had ADHD, short for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This meant that he preferred exploring the wide open world around him than the enclosed area of Kadic Junior High.

"Yes. Since you can't use your room due to the broken water pipe, you have to stay with me for possibly up until the next week..." Jeremie said, who was not up to sharing his room with his lover and a possible XANA attack made it even worse, plus the matter that he would be in the same room as his boyfriend for days will become VERY awkward.

"Looks like the lovebirds will have plenty of time to get to know each other." Odd said as he made a kissing sound. Ulrich couldn't help but smile at the lover's new situation. "Now if you excuse us, we would like to have the power to leave our rooms. Have fun being together longer than you ever wanted!" Ulrich said as him and Odd left the room holding hands and laughing slightly.

* * *

After leaving the love-birds in their room, Odd and Ulrich met with Yumi and Aelita during lunch, where the four talked about the flu and other recent events. "So Sero's room got a water pipe leak AND he has the flu? That must suck bad." Yumi said, eating her croissant.

"And that's not even the best part! Since Sero asked Jimbo if he could crash in Jeremie's dorm, him and Sero will be within talking distance for the next few days because they have the flu!" Odd said with a devilish grin as he finished his second muffin. "Which means that the lovers will get plenty of time to know each other and _more_." Ulrich said with the same grin as Odd. The group laughed as they finished lunch and decided to surprise their sick friends, bringing some spare food for the two.

* * *

"why does this feel so... Awkward? We have all the time in the world, but we are too embarrassed to do anything." Jeremie said with some sulking and coughing. While the two enjoyed their free time, Jeremie wanted to go slow with their relationship, which made Sero go lustful. Normally he would pleasure himself every other day, but since the two are stuck in one room for the next few days, Sero can't get any decent alone time.

"You know, we could try fooling around a bit, see where it takes us." Sero suggested with a sexy look on his face, which was hard to do with a runny nose. he wanted to get in perfect Equilibrium, in perfect harmony with his lover.

"Alright fine I'll give in, but can we try to keep it above the belt? I don't want this to be about sex yet, promise?" Jeremie asked Sero, who looked like he wanted to explore every inch of his body.

"Ok fine, I promise to not reach third-base with you for now." Sero said with some slight disappointment in his voice. "Now how about we get down to business, our shirts won't get rid of themselves you know?" Sero added with a sexy accent in his voice as he took off Jeremie's sweatshirt. He blushed slightly as he took off Sero's green shirt with ease. The couples' hands wandered their chests while they locked lips and played a little game with their lips. "_Te amo, o mea sola voluptas." _Sero said when he momentarily took his lips away from Jeremie's. "Since when could you speak Latin, _mea speciosa florere dicuntur_?" Jeremie said with a smile on his face, which had gained Sero's runny nose. The two resumed kissing for what seemed like eternity, during which the couple moved from Sero's tiny portable mattress to Jeremie's bed. Sero thought for a moment and decided to move his hands down from Jeremie's chest to his pant's zipper and proceeded to slowly unzip it. Jeremie was about to say something when some very familiar friends came through the door...

"Hey Jeremie and Sero! We saved some lunch for you if you-AHHHHHHH!" The couple heard Odd exclaim, who screamed as if it was a XANA attack. The lovers turned around in shock when they saw a fainted Odd in Ulrich's arms, who had Odd's spilled food on him also. The two also noticed Yumi and Aelita slightly shocked at what they saw. The lovers quickly covered themselves up with the bed sheets even though only their chests were bare.

"Do you want us to come back when we put Odd in his bed?" Yumi said, trying to keep her perfect composure. Ulrich cursed to himself when he saw the amount of food that Odd unintentionally threw on him. "And get Ulrich a new shirt." Aelita added, which made Yumi smile and Ulrich blush slightly.

"N-n-no please, but try to convince Odd that it was a dream or something." Sero said with what was his biggest blush on his face. Jeremie did nothing but nodded in agreement with him. As the group left the couple in their room, Sero said something after what seemed like forever, "Maybe I should've locked the door... Like Odd suggested to me." The couple smiled in embarrassment.

* * *

**AN: **Sixth chapter is now up! Sorry for the long wait, but personal life takes priority.

My next chapter will be up hopefully sooner than two weeks. Review and follow if you want!


	7. XANA Always Ruins the Fun

Hello everyone! My seventh chapter is now up! mostly a Ulrich & Odd based chapter with a hearty side of Sero in third-person (shocker! :O). a great amount of XANA action included.

**Note:** short-ish masturbation scene.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

* * *

As Ulrich gingerly placed the unconscious and now snoring Odd on his bed, he glanced at Yumi and Aelita and looked back at his boyfriend. The group, apart from Odd who (for some reason) fainted, were slightly shaken from witnessing Sero and Jeremie making out passionately in Jeremie's dorm room. The thing that surprised Ulrich was Odd's reaction. He thought that Odd's reaction would be more mature since the two have dated since the start of January. Their relationship has had many good and many bad events, such as the time when Jeremie fainted when he intruded upon the lovers during their first time having sex.

"Hey Ulrich, you do realize that you still have an entire lunch's worth of food on you right?" Aelita said with a small giggle which she covered.

"Oh crap I forgot completely, thanks Aelita. Hey, could you two possibly watch over Odd while I take a shower? I need to get this food off me." Ulrich said as he searched for a set of spare clothes, not before taking a towel. Babysitting a snoring, sleeping Odd with food on his shirt was something he did not want to do today.

"It's not a problem at all Ulrich, you helped us before, so we should return the favour. Now go before someone asks why you have shepherds' pie with milk on your shirt." Yumi said with a smile. Ulrich always liked having dependable friends for awkward times like these.

* * *

When Ulrich got to the empty shower room, he went to a stall near one of the four corners and stripped down nude, placing his clean, food-free clothes on the bench. Looking around, he turned on the shower and thought to himself. Taking the opportunity, he sat down on the tile floor and slowly started masturbating. Him and Odd haven't had the time to pleasure each other for the last two weeks due to testing, XANA attacks, and other events happening such as Sero becoming part of the gang.

Putting those thoughts aside, he focused on himself and his unreleased orgasm. Starting to speed up gradually, he moaned as he quickened. not long after, his hand rapidly moved up and down his shaft, moaning louder than he wished. Trying to focus his mind on something else to extend the time, he accidentally thought of Odd and him kissing each other, which made him moan loudly and ejaculate, spilling his seed which trickled into the drain. "Damn, Odd and I need to get more free time." Ulrich said to himself between breaths, noticing the rather large amount of semen he released. Remembering why he was in the showers, he quickly washed and cleaned his body. Turning off the shower, he dried himself off and swiftly dressed before someone could come in. After exiting the shower room, he took a look around before returning to his room.

* * *

Odd woke up with a shock. Rubbing his head, he remembered something about Jeremie and Sero doing something together. Looking around, he saw Aelita and Yumi sitting on Ulrich's bed watching something on Aelita's computer. When Yumi noticed that Odd was awake, she took her ear-buds out and tapped Aelita's shoulder, which silently told her to take her headphones off. Odd asked the lovers, "Wha-wh-what happened? Last thing I remember was Sero and Jeremie and-..."

"Nothing else. Don't worry about it, Rosa just decided to joke with you, claiming that the school was out of food, making you faint." Aelita said, interrupting Odd in the process. "Are you sure? Because I remembered that something else was happening." Odd asked the lovers again, wanting more information. "Yeah, something else DID happen. When you fainted, you spilled all the food that you were going to give to Sero and Jeremie on ME!" Ulrich said, entering the room. "Thankfully, Yumi and Aelita agreed to watch over you if something bad would happen, so I took a fast shower to clean myself up." His boyfriend added with a slight look of disapproval at him. "Oh, and thank-you Aelita and Yumi for taking care of my sleeping Odd." He said in a lighter tone, smuggling a short kiss to Odd's cheek.

"No problem at all Ulrich. Well, I guess we'll go n-hold on, Jeremie sent me a message." Aelita said, focusing on her computer. "He says XANA is attacking, but he can't leave his room due to XANA trying to break it open! We need to go to the factory."

"Well what are we waiting for then? Aelita can activate the computer and the lovebirds can handle themselves, so let's hurry!" Odd said, wanting to have this day be over.

* * *

The lovebirds had no luck with the Polymorphic Clone which took the form of Sero, taunting him and his weak physical structure. If there was one thing Sero wasn't good at, it was self-defense and the only thing worse than that is now him fighting a much stronger version of himself. Nonetheless, Sero was holding his ground against XANA. "Jeremie, you need to get to the factory to help the others! I think I can hold off XANA." Sero said, quickly dodging a punch from the clone, if there was one advantage Sero had, it was his nimble speed and quick reactions. Jeremie only nodded in agreement and ran out the door, only to bump into the rest of the gang. "Jeremie, whats going on? Does Sero need he-LOOK OUT!" Sero interrupted Aelita. Jeremie looked behind him to see that Sero took a full-on shock from his clone. "NO!" Jeremie shouted, wanting to lunge at the clone, but was grabbed by Ulrich.

"Are you crazy Einstein? Sero can handle himself. we need to go to the factory, deactivate the tower, and return to the past!" Ulrich nearly shouted at him. "Jeremie, go! I can handle it." Sero said, getting back up from the ground with his clover-green shirt slightly charred from the electricity. The gang grabbed Jeremie and ran to the factory. Turning behind him, Sero lunged at the clone only to fly through him. "Okay, maybe I don't have this under control." Sero said, taking in a large inhale before running out of Jeremie's room and down the hallway. Looking behind him he saw XANA chasing him, after getting an idea he ran right towards the clone when it started charging an electro-ball. "I hope this plan works like I thought." He said to himself. After the Polymorph launched its electric attack, Sero quickly dodged the ball, side-stepping it. The clone looked angry when he saw his enemy do this, and decided to charge at him instead of launching another ball.

"Is that all you got XANA? I got plenty of energy left!" Sero said, gasping slightly. He was feeling his adrenaline pushing him to his peak condition, which still wasn't enough for him. XANA let out some laugher, morphing into a two Meter tall version of Sero, which looked more buff and athletic than before. "Well, shit." Sero said. Knowing that he can't keep dodging his attacks, he ran right past the clone, leading it into the school park. "Come at me XANA, I can do this all day!" Sero said, wheezing as he ran. Even though his adrenaline kept him going, Sero's Asthma was holding him back from his full potential. Unfortunately, Sero threw away his inhaler when he enrolled into Kadic high, since the air was much cleaner than the United States. Looking behind him, he saw the clone charging towards him with no trouble at all.

"Well, I'm not much of a climber but time to start trying." Sero said with more gasping as he slowly started climbing the tallest tree near him. When he reached a suitable spot on a thick branch, he sat down and held his hands to his chest in pain as if his lungs were on fire. After wheezing for enough air, he looked down to see the clone under the tree charging an electric ball. Gaining enough energy, he slowly climbed up to the top of the tree so the clone was out of his field of view. When the clone launched the electric ball, the tree shook, nearly making Sero fall but grabbed a branch for dear life, since it was easily a six meter drop from his feet. The Polymorphic Clone laughed as it launched another ball, but at the base of the tree instead of Sero. Hearing the tree snap and slowly collapse, he tried climbing the branch, but Sero's effort were in vain as him and the tree fell, with the largest branch falling on his legs, immobilizing him. The clone laughed as it readied a last ball of electricity.

* * *

"Tower deactivated." Aelita said when the activated way tower turned to a more friendly glow of blue.

"Return to the past now!" Jeremie said, almost in tears for leaving his boyfriend behind with XANA. He cried a single tear as the familiar white light covered the factory...

* * *

"Is that... All you got?" Sero said with extreme pain and wheezing, barely holding on life. his leg bones were completely shattered and bleeding profusely due to the fallen tree branch on his legs. The clone hovered the electric ball to his head, but luck smiled on Sero when the clone suddenly dispersed the energy ball as he flickered in and out of existence. Sero smiled when the clone became its true form as a Spectre of XANA, which floated away. "Thanks... Jeremie..." Sero said as he saw a bright light envelop him and the school.

* * *

When Sero found his conscious, he found himself bare-chested kissing Jeremie who had his shirt on the floor. "Hold on, _mea amantur unum_." Sero said, removing his lips from Jeremie's as he locked the door. "Now, where were we?" He said, putting his lips near Jeremie's. "We were at the part where you tried to unzip my pants. Sorry Sero, but my pants are staying on for now." Jeremie said with a smirk as he left the room with spare clothes to go to the shower. Sero groaned with anger since the return to the past not only saved his life, but cut his love session with Jeremie short.

* * *

**AN:** seventh chapter is now done, and early too! felt like I starved all of you for the two week-absence, so I whipped this one up fairly fast as a small apology.

Review, follow, and/or favorite if you want! I won't rage-quit if you don't. :]

NOTE: With this entire week being a 'winter' break for me, look out for a possible eight chapter coming out soon, but I won't make any promises. :P


	8. My Horrible Memory

Hello everyone! My eight chapter is now up, now returning is another Sero-based chapter.

WARNING: not much action in this chapter. (I can't make everything XANA and/or sex :P)

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

* * *

I woke up peacefully with my iPod's musical alarm set at 5:30 AM, which woke me up with "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses. Once I grabbed my usual clothes which included a sanitary mouth cover in place of my hoodie, I gave the still-sleeping Jeremie a light kiss on the forehead, which made him mumble an unfamiliar theory in physics. After grabbing a towel, I slowly opened the door and closed it silently. Looking around, I made my way to the showers.

As I walked to the showers, I thought about the recent events that have happened to me. Today marked the third day and night (AN: not considering the night of the water pipe leak.) with my lover Jeremie being in the same room as me for longer than I ever wanted, which caused Odd to faint during our make-out session and made me experience how MUCH it hurts to have every single bone in your legs broken. Another bad coincidence was that we shared all of our classes, but it came with the advantage that we could work together on the worksheets and homework that gets sent to Jeremie's dorm during our ongoing sickness. Another decent thing was the rather mild symptoms of the flu, which was mostly just coughing, a runny nose, and a sore throat.

My mind returned to reality when I walked right into the door of the boy's showers. Rubbing my head in pain, I opened the door to the showers. When I looked at the mirrors, I noticed how much of my daily routine I forgot to keep maintaining: My Acne was nearly as bad as Herb's, my hair was all clumped into an eternal bed-head hairstyle, and even my natural green streak of hair was nearing my nostrils with the rest of my hair reaching right above my eyes.

"Great, no time for personal release..." I said with a sigh as I entered the showers to find a quiet corner. Placing my clothes for the day on the bench, I started washing myself, getting rid of my bed-head. Finishing my hair, I cleaned the rest of my body and put on my clothes, strapping on my sanitary face-mask. After applying my once-daily Acne treatment, I took one look at myself one last time before I exited the shower. I checked myself to see if I brought my wallet which was absent from my body. "Crap, now I have to go back to the room now." I said with no emotion in my voice as I went back to Jeremie's room.

* * *

After sneaking back into Jeremie's room for my wallet, I went to go get early breakfast from Rosa as it was nearing 6:20 AM. When I received my food, I ate it at such a speed to make even Odd jealous, for a second I thought I forgot something but I just ignored it. Wiping my face clean, I left the campus to get myself a haircut.

Looking around the streets near Kadic, I managed to find a barbershop called '_Mains, Ciseaux, et les cheveux'. _Shrugging to myself, I entered the place to find a lone barber cleaning the various chairs. I looked above in curiosity when I heard a bell ring, alerting the owner to my presence. "Bonjour! Comment voulez-vous que votre coupe de cheveux?" He said to me in a genuine French accent. Unfortunately, I knew very little French besides my next phrase.

"Pouvez-vous parler anglais?" Even I couldn't say that phrase perfectly, not including my sanitary face mask muffling my voice. The barber initially looked confused but said "Oh, um yes. How would you like your hair cut?" Thinking it over, I said "I would like my main hair trimmed to about two centimetres and my green streak to end between my eyes, if it isn't a problem." The barber obviously wasn't great at English but he did understand my request to some extent.

"Very well then. If you could take a seat when you want me to start." He said, motioning towards the row of chairs facing the wall. Inhaling, I sat at the center chair and relaxed my body when he started cutting my hair...

* * *

"_Il est parfait!_" The barber said, admiring his work, and even I was impressed despite not knowing what he said. The way he cut my hair reminded me of how it looked when I first came to Kadic. "That will be €7.99." He said, kindly extending his hand out, waiting for his payment. I felt bad for his lack of business, so I decided to just give him a €20 banknote. "Keep the change, you need it." I said, placing the banknote in his hand. Apparently, he has never seen this amount of goodwill from a foreigner, saying "Many thanks!" His eyes full of glee. Showing a smile, I exited the barbershop.

I checked the time which said 6:40 AM, "Crap, I need to hurry back." I said to myself. After running as fast as my Asthma let me, I silently entered the cafeteria to see the group minus Yumi (Who was only a day student.) sitting at a table. Jeremie was sitting to the left of Aelita with Odd and Ulrich sitting opposite of them. Ulrich and Odd glanced at me to which I quickly made a silent "Hush" to them, telling them to secretly ignore me while I snuck behind my lover. "Sorry Jeremie I spaced out, what did you say?" Odd said to him while wiping his nose, trying his best to not notice me. "Sero just vanished! I have no idea where he is and I'm getting worried sick. I need to start looking for him or I'll go crazy!" Jeremie said, worried out of his mind. As soon as he got up and turned around, his face met with mine.

"So, did you find me yet?" I said with a slight smile which was covered by my sanitary mask. Jeremie's face was about to tear up when he saw me. "Wh-whe-where did you go? I was going crazy without you!" He said with his emotions unbound. "Don't worry about it. I just went off of the campus for a haircut since it was getting long." I said calmly, making a note to myself to tell Jeremie when I run off somewhere. "You still should've said something! But I do love your haircut..." He said, moving his hand through my hair. "Hey Jeremie, you do realize that you aren't in your room right?" Aelita said with a cough, breaking the moment. With me and my lover blushing, we sat down with the others.

"Do you want something to eat Sero?" Ulrich said, trying to offer a muffin which Odd thoughtlessly took from his hand. "I'm good, I ate before I went to get my haircut." I said, patting my full belly. "So, what else were you talking about besides my disappearance?" I asked the group. "Haven't you heard? The newest issue of the school paper is saying that since the flu has basically infected everyone now, the quarantine process is now canceled for the year!" Ulrich said, who had a sore throat but was happy that he doesn't have to hide from the flu. Upon hearing this, I yanked off my mask with happiness. "And some other news for you Sero, Jim came to the cafeteria earlier. He wanted to tell you that the water damage in your room is now mostly gone, so you can use your room soon." Aelita said, covering a cough.

"...Which means that you have to use your room now since your room is repaired..." Jeremie said with some disappointment. I wasn't sure how to take the news, I only want just one more day with him. "...But the good news is that they are still taking care of the smaller details, so we have one last day of awkward closeness with each other!" Jeremie said with a smile on his face. I couldn't believe the good and/or bad news. "And I think I'm ready to go to the next level..." Jeremie whispered to me in a sexy voice. The others couldn't hear what my lover said to me but they probably have an idea of what Jeremie said by looking at me blush to a new level.

"I can barely contain my excitement! This is just so gre-AHH!" I said, holding my head in agony. This isn't supposed to happen, but then I remembered. My medication... I forgot to take it this morning... Every noise... Every light... Pure torture to me... "Sero! Are you okay?!" Jeremie said with fear in his voice, clueless of what to do. "My Head... I need my... Meds.. Under the mattres-" Were my last words before my consciousness left me...

* * *

**AN: **Cliffhanger! I know that I'm evil :P. guess you will just have to wait until the ninth chapter to find out what will happen next!

review, follow, Fav. Do what you want. :}

NOTE: since I didn't tell you, I do all of my writing on my iPad mini and not a laptop/computer (I find it easier), which explains the slightly short looking paragraphs when you look at them from a desktop.


	9. Our First Time

Hello Everyone! The ninth chapter is now up and it will now explain Sero's unknown headache, his meds, and more! Mainly Jeremie/Sero-based chapter (and in first person :O).

**WARNING:** small Lime ahead!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

* * *

(Jeremie's P.O.V)

If there was one thing worse than not knowing where you lover went, it was him having a massive headache paired with a seizure.

"My Head... I need my... Meds.. Under the mattres-" Sero said, losing his consciousness not before starting to have a seizure. I felt completely clueless on what to do until I took his words to mind and tried to keep The situation under control, "Odd, keep his head off the ground! Ulrich and Aelita, take him to my room. We need to find his medication!" I said with haste. I was in no condition to possibly lose Sero, not now and not ever. Odd understood my wild emotions and catched Sero's head, who was still shaking. Ulrich and Aelita also helped and grabbed Sero's fragile, shuddering frame. With everyone working together, I ran as fast as I could, possibly the fastest I have ever ran.

Making my way to my room with the group in tow, I frantically searched all around Sero's portable mattress for anything. Slowly losing hope, I cried my heart out as my friends came in the room with the still-trembling Sero being held by them. As I was about to say something, I saw an orange Rx medication bottle sticking out from beneath the mattress labeled: GABAPENTIN; 400mg, for management of Complex Partial Seizures and Ictal Headaches. Take one capsule one time by mouth every day. I quickly ripped off the cap and grabbed one of the red capsules.

"Open Sero's mouth, he needs to swallow this!" I said, wanting this to end. Odd understood as he tried his best to open the shaky mouth of Sero while I put the pill in his mouth. Odd knew what to do next without me asking and as he made Sero swallow the pill, the effects were almost instantaneous with Sero's seizure slowing down. I cried a final tear of happiness when my lover started breathing normally when the seizure was over. The group took the invisible message and laid Sero on his mattress, leaving afterwards. I was about to wake up my partner when all the emotional stress got to me, making my emotionally tired body rest, knowing my love is safe...

* * *

(Sero's P.O.V)

As I woke up, the sun's light became pure torture to my eyes with every sound drilling forcefully through my eardrums. I carefully closed the shades of Jeremie's room and silently locked the door. While all of this was happening, I covered my eyes from the bright colors which were determined to torment my eyes. "Damn Ictal headaches and seizures, always ruining my fun..." I mouthed to myself, now noticing the unconscious Jeremie by my bed holding an open medication bottle which I recognized as my own. I cried slightly, knowing that my lover saved me from my seizure. I felt like I should wake him up and thank him for potentially saving my life, but I think he needs to repair his mind from the possibly nerve-wracking experience when I was unconscious.

"Thank you, my love..." I quietly said to the resting Jeremie, who I moved from the cold, hard floor to his comfortable bed. Looking at him made me feel so... Alive, he saved me from myself. I was in his debt, if anything else. After giving him a kiss on the cheek, I wrote him a note telling him where I'll be going. As I finished the note, I delicately placed it on my bed. Before leaving my room, I grabbed my iPod, my sound-proof headphones, and my favorite hoodie which I pulled over my eyes. As I left the building and entered the park, I turned on my iPod and played Ludwig Von Beethoven - Symphony no. 9. Even during my chronic headaches, I found myself able to listen to classical music without a problem, even being slightly beneficial to a degree. Finding a dark spot against a tree facing the manhole cover, I turned up my music slightly and drifted off into blissful sleep...

* * *

(Jeremie's P.O.V)

I woke up from my phone's vibrating alarm, which reminded me that class starts in 15 minutes. I was about to wake up Sero from his sleep when I noticed there was a note in his place, I grabbed the note and read it: "_I will be in the school park, away from the noise. If I'm not back when you wake up, then I'll be by the manhole to the factory -Sero P.S, try to keep your voice down, my headaches can get extremely sensitive." _"The park? Doesn't he know that we have classes today? I need to go find him and remind him about his classes!" I said, wanting to make sure he wouldn't forget about schoolwork.

Making my way towards the familiar manhole cover, I looked around the area for Sero. I was about to shout his name when I spotted a memorable green streak of hair on my boyfriend, who was sleeping under the shadow of a large oak tree. I was contemplating on how to wake him up but he decided to wake up on his own, so I sat next to him. "Are you happy that I left a note?" Sero said quietly with a grin on his face. "You do realize that we have classes in about 10 minutes, right?" I said. I wanted to keep up on my school, but I did appreciate the free time. "Alright, alright I'm coming, but I want you to promise one thing. And that thing is that you either promise to go third-base with me by tonight or we can do this right now if you want to." Sero said. There was no way I could escape from this promise. I thought long and hard about this.

"Fine, I promise to reach third-base with you... But not now, since we need to go to our classes in five minutes. But I'll give you a small gift for not dying." I said, giving Sero a long and passionate kiss which our lips and tongues enjoyed. As I was about to say something, the first bell of the day rang, telling us to hurry to class.

* * *

(Odd's P.O.V)

As Odd finished his lunch near record time with everyone else still eating at their own pace, he noticed Jeremie's and Sero's sudden shyness of each other, but ignored it and brought up another topic;

"So Sero, what exactly happened this morning?" Odd said, playing with his empty plate. "Did something happen during breakfast?" Yumi said with curiosity. With Yumi being a day student, she usually misses out on some early morning fun. "It was nothing, I just forgot to take my medicine so I had a seizure and a MASSIVE headache. Thankfully, Jeremie helped save me by giving me my meds." Sero said nonchalantly, as if it happened every day.

"How exactly is that 'normal'? And how does NOT taking medicine do that?" Yumi asked, curious of how Sero had a seizure and was more than glad to talk about it. "It has to do with my medication, Gabapentin. While it does keep away my seizures and headaches, if I forget to take it after I get into a schedule with it, I get something that's called a 'Rebound'. It has to do with my body getting used to the drug for too long." Sero said, finishing his food.

"And has this ever happened before?" Ulrich said, curious of Sero's medical history. "Only two times before this incident, but this one was the only one with the seizure included." Sero said, taking a croissant from Jeremie. "Where's Aelita? She does know it's lunch now, right?" Sero added, noticing that Aelita isn't here. "She had to makeup some gym work, unlike you two lazybones." Yumi said, looking at Sero and Jeremie. "What can I say? I was able to pass off my fractured spine as a recent injury with some signature forgery, so I don't have to do much besides dress up and act injured." Sero said, finishing Jeremie's croissant. Jeremie was about to defend his laziness, but the bell saved him from explaining his case.

* * *

(Sero's P.O.V)

Tonight will be the night for me and Jeremie. As I walked to his dorm room, my mind thought of every worst case scenario; XANA attacking, Odd interrupting and fainting (again), school fire, and (somehow) World War III. Pushing those thoughts aside, I steeled my will and knocked on Jeremie's door. "Come in!" I heard him say from behind the door. Swallowing my anxiety, I opened the door to see Jeremie at his computer. "No signs of any activated towers, and no unusual activity." Jeremie said, turning off his computer as the scan finished.

You do know what I'm about to ask you, right?" I said to Jeremie, who smiled slightly. "Its not like you gave me much of a choice Sero." He said, taking a look at me. "Then why are we waiting? I want to remember this forever, even if it is just third-base." I said in a romantic tone. My lust for Jeremie wanted to show itself, but I kept it inside. "My shirt won't take itself off, you know right?" Jeremie said, moving towards his bed, motioning for me to join him. I locked the door as a safety precaution before I joined him on the bed. In a quick motion, Jeremie's shirt was on the floor shortly before mine joined it. My heart raced when his lips touched mine, opening it for his tongue to play with mine. I felt Jeremie's hand go down my chest to my pants, but I stopped his hand. "Let me be the one to pleasure." I said, moving my hands to Jeremie's pants.

"I hope I'm not too rough on you Jere-boy." I said with a smile as I unzipped Jeremie's pants and took off his pants and underwear. "It's Jeremie, not Jere-bo-AH!" Jeremie moaned as I delicately handled his member. It was obvious that Jeremie was still a virgin and was never touched by someone else. "I'm sorry Jeremie, could you repeat that?" I said, slowly pumping his manhood. The only sounds he could make were moans and gasps as I pleasured him. "You look distracted, mind if I help?" I said with a grin, removing my hands as I brought my tongue to the tip of his penis. Jeremie released a loud gasp as my tongue played with his member. "Pl-pl-please d-don't stop." Jeremie managed to say between moans.

"Don't stop, huh? You got it." I said, surprising Jeremie by enveloping his penis with my mouth. His eyes looked ready to pop out as he put his smooth hands in my hair. "Se-Sero! I think I'm gonna cum!" Jeremie gasped, tightening his grip on my hair. I quickly replaced my mouth with my soft hands as I quickly pumped my lover's member. Jeremie let out a loud moan as he ejaculated, partly covering my face. "You haven't pleasured yourself recently, have you Jere-boy?" I said, wiping my face clean. "Yes it has been a while, but can you stop calling me Jere-boy please?" He said blushing as he put his underwear back on. "How about just in private then, _anima mea feminam_?" I said, changing into plain white pajamas._  
_

"So, how about a good-night cuddle?" I said, laying on Jeremie's bed. "If it can get you to go to bed, then good for me." Jeremie said with a smile as he laid down in front of me. I gave him a kiss on his neck and held him, letting our bodies calm each other into a night of heavenly sleep...

* * *

**AN: **Ninth chapter done! I hope you enjoyed my small-ish lemon. Expect the tenth chapter to be up ASAP.

NOTE: I updated the first chapter to be less amateur-ish, so go check it out!

Review/favorite/follow. Do whichever you prefer :).


	10. My Horrible Out-Of-Body Experience Pt 1

Hello everyone! The tenth chapter is now up! This one includes Lyoko and more. Mainly a Sero-based chapter except for the beginning.

Note: this chapter is partly based on the episodes "Missing Link" and "Nobody in Particular" but very different with some small similarities!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

* * *

Sero felt like a killing machine on Lyoko. Aelita and Ulrich watched as Sero dashed through the air on his emerald-green wings, taking out the monstrous swarm of Hornets guarding the activated tower. "This is awesome! I almost want XANA to attack more often!" Sero gladly said as he threw his scythe at the swarm, taking out three of them before the scythe circled back to its owner.

"You're crazy Sero! You know that, right?" Ulrich shouted to Sero. Ulrich was angry because he is unable to help the group with his katana. "Let him have some fun, he doesn't get an opportunity like this often." Aelita said, watching Sero as he slowly thinned down the swarm. Odd was having some fun, taking potshots at the giant mass surrounding the Way tower. Moments later, the remaining Hornets fled, puzzling the group. "Where did they go?" Sero said, landing near the tower. After walking around the tower, he found himself face-to-face with the Scyphozoa. This was the first time that Sero ever saw the Scyphozoa. "And what are you supposed to be?" Sero asked mockingly to XANA's creation, which only looked at him. "Sero, stop the Scyphozoa before it gets to Aelita!" Sero heard Jeremie say from the Supercomputer.

"Why? It looks pretty harmless to me-umm what is it trying to do?" Sero said with some fear as he back-stepped from the Scyphozoa, which was advancing towards him while trying to grab him. Sero readied his scythe before it suddenly vanished into thin air. Quickly glancing around to find his weapon, he didn't see the Scyphozoa grip him with its tentacles. Unable to escape, Sero could only stare at the Scyphozoa as it took something from his brain. "Odd, do something!" Jeremie said, barely containing his emotions. "Sorry Einstein, I can't get a clear shot!" Odd said, surrounded by the leftover Hornets which blocked any possible shot from him. Odd took a chance and ran through the Hornet-wall and made a lucky shot, slicing several tentacles. The Scyphozoa fled after letting go of Sero, who fell to the mountainous ground.

"Aelita, go deactivate the tower!" Odd shouted to Aelita, who was already running to the tower. Aelita started to deactivate the tower as Sero silently crawled into the tower, losing consciousness. "Tower deactivated." Aelita said, not noticing that Sero was in the tower. "Nice work guys, I'm bringing all of you back now." Jeremie said, entering the codes for materialization.

* * *

Jeremie and Yumi anxiously waited for the scanners to open, making sure that everyone came back ok. Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita were the first ones devirtualized but Jeremie was starting to worry about Sero because it has been a minute since the others were back on Earth. "You don't think that the code went wrong Jeremie?" Aelita said to him, who was getting worried. "He should've been back by now, the code for materialization has always worked..." Jeremie said, making his hands into fists. The Scanner decided to now open to show... "No one? Why would the scanner open up as if someone was in it?" Ulrich said in confusion, staring at the empty scanner.

(Sero's P.O.V)

As I exited the scanner, my friends simply looked at me with slight depression, most notably in my boyfriend. "No one? Why would the scanner open up as if someone was in it?" Ulrich said, staring at me in confusion. What's wrong with them, can't they see me? "Hey guys I'm right here!" I said, waving my arms at them as I exited the scanner without any type of reaction. "Maybe it had to do with the Scyphozoa, but who knows what happened." Aelita suggested to Jeremie, who was still looking at the scanner I came out of. "Hey Odd, can you see me?" I said to Odd while I reached for his shoulder, but I lost my balance and fell on him. Ulrich quickly reacted and said "Are you okay Odd?" "I'm not Odd, I'm Sero! And why were you guys ignoring me?" I shouted at him. "What are you talking about, and why do you sound like him?" Ulrich said, slightly confused. "It's me, Sero! Come on guys, look at my-" I looked down at myself. "My purple outfit?" Am I in Odd's body now? I felt the space above me and felt gelled hair. Yep, definitely Odd's body. The others looked at me in total confusion especially Jeremie, who was completely shocked.

"Umm, could you care to explain Jeremie?" I said to him worryingly, Odd's body felt so foreign to me. "I think I have one possible theory, and I'll try to make it simple; XANA tried to remove your DNA code for materialization, but he didn't have enough time to remove the code for your mind, so your body and mind are now separate. While I have to find the codes needed to solve this, we need to find your body on Lyoko." Jeremie said, already thinking of the potential codes in his mind. "Did you already forget Einstein? It's almost the end of lunch AND a school day. How will we cover up Sero's disappearance?" Yumi said, pointing out the unfortunate facts. I've always hated it when she was right. "Then why not just return to the past? Shouldn't that fix the problem?" I said, trying to be optimistic.

"That won't help. The return barely affects Lyoko-related incidents, hence why towers stay activated if we try to return. So doing a time reversion will do nothing in terms of fixing this problem." Jeremie truthfully said. "What about school then? I'm not sure if I can exit Odd's body." I replied. "And I'm not comfortable with YOUR boyfriend being in MINE'S body." Ulrich added on, glaring at me. "It's not like I know how to 'live' as a spectre!" I shouted back at Ulrich, pushing him. But when I did that, I felt my ghostly body enter Ulrich. "What just happened? Did I just-" I was interrupted by Odd's unconscious body falling on me. "Switch bodies?" I said, looking at my new body which is now Ulrich.

"Strange. Whenever you make physical contact with someone, you seem to seize control of that person. Maybe it would be best if you avoided touching people." Aelita noted, trying her best to not laugh at the snoring Odd leaning on me. Yumi peeled Odd off of me while trying to not touch me. "So what now Jeremie? I'm in Ulrich's body, Odd is unconscious, lunch is almost over, my body is in Lyoko and possibly under the control of XANA." I said, angry at the horrible circumstances. "Hmm, our best chance is to fake Sero, Ulrich, and me being sick along with Odd getting a concussion, which will give me time to figure out the code. In the meantime Sero, stay in Odd's room to watch over him while Yumi and Aelita go back to their classes." Jeremie said. "What was lunch today by the way?" Jeremie added, asking Yumi and Aelita. "I think it was Shepard's Pie with Tofu." Yumi replied after trying to remember. "That's perfect! It should easily pass by the teachers." Jeremie said, being excited for once about the horrible lunch of the day.

* * *

Ulrich's/Odd's room could be the most boring place at the school. After Jeremie basically locked himself in the factory to get me back together with my body, I was ordered to stay with Odd until he wakes up and it has been nearly five hours since then. I was contemplating on going to sleep until I heard a certain dog bark. "Kiwi! You finally decided to wake up to keep me from dying of boredom? Good dog!" I cheerfully said to Kiwi as I extended my arms out, I was always more of a dog person. As Kiwi was about to leap into my hands, I realized that I could switch bodies with him. "No wait Kiwi! No kisses now!" I blurted out to the dog but it was too late, for Kiwi landed on me. I felt my vision flicker before I saw Ulrich's knocked-out body on his bed, but he looked MUCH bigger than me.

"Oh god. Please no, I hope what just happened didn't happen..." I said to myself as I struggled walking on all fours to Kiwi's doggy water bowl. I opened my eyes as I looked at the water and saw Kiwi's face staring back at me. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" I howled in terror, as if becoming Odd and Ulrich wasn't anywhere close to being a dog. I needed to get back to Jeremie before this got any worse than it could. Unfortunately, I locked the door when I was in Ulrich's body, but maybe Odd would wake up soon. "Soon isn't early enough, I need to wake up the one who can't be woken up." I said to myself, looking at Odd, I didn't want to take over his body again since he may not wake up again. After I tried a solid minute of shouting at him, I said something that probably would've gotten me killed by Odd if I was in my body.

"Odd wake up! Ulrich is dating Sissi and is about to have sex with her!" I said, trying to sound as realistic as possible. It's like I just threw him in the coldest ocean with how he woke up. "I'M GONNA SAVE YOU FROM THAT EVIL SUCCUBUS ULRICH!" Odd shouted with half-opened eyes, waking up instantly. "Wait, what? Oh come on Sero! You better be hiding for what you just said!" Odd said, realizing that his boyfriend is safe on his bed and away from the 'succubus' Sissi. "Down here Odd." I said, trying to get his attention. "Umm Sero? Care to explain why-" Odd said, looking down at me/Kiwi. "Long story. In short, I accidentally possessed you, Ulrich, and Kiwi, in that order." I said, interrupting him.

"I woke you up because I wanted to check if Jeremie finished the code to get me back in my body for good." I said, resisting the urge to itch myself. "Alright fine, let's go to the factory." Odd said, opening the door not after he noticed my difficulty moving around in Kiwi's body. "Want me to carry you Sero?" Odd asked, waiting for me to leap into his arms. "Put me in your backpack, I may accidentally take control of your body if I touch you." I said, lifting a front paw to point at his backpack. Odd obliged and put the backpack on its side, allowing me to enter it. After I got inside Odd's backpack, he closed the top and put it on his back. Before leaving, he gave his sleeping lover a kiss on the cheek before making our way to the factory.

* * *

As Odd was speeding up on his skateboard in the sewers, he got a call from someone. "Yeah Einstein? Wait, XANA has taken control of who in Lyoko?- hello? Hello!?" Odd said on the phone with Jeremie, who he lost connection with as Odd was in the sewers. "Something you want to tell me Odd?" I said to Odd, my voice muffled due to the backpack. "Oh nothing, just the usual XANA attack in Lyoko with your body possibly controlled by XANA." Odd replied. "Hurry up then! I have a bone to pick with XANA." I said with anger embedded in my voice.

* * *

"We're here Einstein!" Odd said, placing his backpack on the ground and opening the top, allowing me to exit it. "Odd, how many times must I say this; Kiwi can't come to Lyoko!" Jeremie said with fake anger. "Hey don't look at me, just accidentally went into Kiwi's body here." I said sarcastically, pulling Jeremie and Aelita's attention to me. "Se-Sero? How did you even-" "Long story Jeremie, so what about Yumi and Ulrich?" I asked after interrupting him. "Ulrich is still out cold and Yumi is about to get in the elevator." Aelita said, leaning on a nearby wall as she closed her phone. "So what's happening in Lyoko?" I asked Jeremie.

"XANA has activated a tower, but more specifically the one we deactivated earlier today. The worst part was that since your unconscious body was in the tower, XANA took control of it, which is now guarding the tower." Jeremie said. "And I also finally finished the codes! All you have to do is enter your body on Lyoko as it is being devirtualized." He added on. "So do I just go into the scanner as myself and it will take me to Lyoko?" I asked my boyfriend. "Theoretically, yes with a 90% chance." Jeremie tried to say with a smile. "Well, thats better than nothing." I said as the elevator opened up to show Yumi, who stared at me.

"Why is Kiwi here?" Yumi asked the group as she exited the elevator. "Don't worry Yumi, it's me Sero, not Odd's 'Diggity Dog'." I said completely calm while Yumi was slightly dumbstruck. "That's enough time for talk guys, Sero's body is guarding the activated tower." Jeremie said. There was a small moment of silence, so I spoke up. "Let me take the evil-me on by myself, XANA deserves it." I said, surprising the group. "let's go Aelita. XANA will regret messing with me." I said, trying my best to walk into the elevator with Aelita behind me.

"Sero, you need to exit Kiwi's body for the scanner to hopefully recognize you." I heard Jeremie say as I exited the elevator. "and how do you think I can do that?" I asked him. "Try imagining yourself walking without actually walking." I heard my lover say from above me. "Jeremie! I'll be inside the scanner opposite of the elevator. Exiting Kiwi's body now." I said, imagining myself walking and it worked like a charm. Looking behind myself, I saw Kiwi's sleeping body on the floor of the elevator. Remembering that no one can see or hear me, I quickly ran into the scanner.

"Transfer Sero." Jeremie said. As the scanners closed, I held my eyes shut and imagined a large and empty grass field to combat my claustrophobia. "Scanner Sero." Jeremie said from the supercomputer. I closed my eyes tighter to block out the bright lights of the scanner. "Virtualization." I heard Jeremie say before I blacked out.

* * *

AN: chapter ten is now complete? As if! Chapter eleven will be the second part of this due to how much longer than what I thought it would be. Another reason was that it has been a while since the last chapter was up.

Review/Favorite/Follow. Do whichever you want. :D


	11. My Horrible Out-Of-Body Experience pt 2

Hello everyone! The eleventh chapter is now up! Read on to know what happened In Lyoko, Sero, and many more things plus a surprise or two! The first part is Lyoko-themed. Still Sero-based.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

* * *

As I landed on the ground of the mountain region, I took a look at myself. As far as I could tell, nothing about my Lyoko look changed besides the absence of my glowing green pattern. As I readied my scythe for a possible ambush, I noticed that the blade was deprived of its emerald shine and replaced with a dull gun-metal grey. "Hey Jeremie, can you hear me?" I asked Jeremie. I hope that I'm more than a spectre on Lyoko. "Loud and clear Sero! Aelita is about to join you in a second. Whatever happens, don't get devirtualized or you won't come back." Jeremie said from the supercomputer. As I looked around, I saw the activated tower to the west. "I'm in Jeremie." I heard Aelita say from behind me. "Do you two want your vehicles?" Jeremie asked us. "Did you forget that we can fly Jeremie? We're good for now." I said, activating my wings while Aelita did the same.

Flying around the skies of Lyoko, me and Aelita started to get closer to the tower. "Hold up Aelita, I see someone." I said, stopping mid-air. The mysterious figure guarding the tower looked like my Lyoko self but was different in several ways. The robes were midnight black with blood-red patterns like mine, but with the eye of XANA on the front of his body. The scythe's blade was twice as long and was ruby-red, complementing the gigantic ebony wings three times the size of mine's or Aelita's. It was as if XANA itself was directly controlling my body. "Jeremy, are you seeing this?" I said to Jeremie. "I wish I wasn't. Are you sure you still want to take him on by yourself?" He said to me.

"I'm sure. Now it's time for revenge." I replied. Holding a hand up for Aelita to stay back, I dashed forward to land right in front of my XANA-fied body. "Get out of my body XANA. Or else." I said, readying my scythe for battle. "If you want this husk of a body so bad, then fight me in the skies for it." XANA said, taking flight into the skies of Lyoko. Not allowing myself to be bested, I followed him into the air. I began trailing him through the sky with my scythe ready. taking a chance, I swung at XANA only for him to disperse into a dark cloud.

"Come on XANA! At least make this a fair fight." I shouted to the dark smoke, which suddenly moved in front of me and transformed back into my captured body. "I have watched you Sero. You show much potential and recklessness in yourself, I want you with me instead of against me." XANA said to me, inches away from my face. How does he dare to make me his pawn? "Sero! What are you doing? What's going on?" Jeremie said. In response, XANA surrounded me and him with his black fog. I heard Aelita trying to use her energy field attack, which was simply absorbed by the haze.

"I will give you two choices Sero: You can either join me, or you can die now. Make your choice or I will." XANA said to me while the foggy prison slowly grew smaller. I had to choose or else XANA would. "I choose neither, you horrible being." I said, quickly slicing XANA. Remembering what I had to do to rejoin my body for good, I quickly grabbed XANA when he started devirtualizing. "You chose... Poorly!" XANA said with a hidden grin. When he finished his sentence, I felt my mind and body becoming one again. But things went bad when my smoky prison suddenly shrunk down, engulfing me. I struggled as the smoke entered my body, disabling my wings. "AELITA!" I screamed as I fell through the sky, completely helpless. The moment I saw my reflection in the digital sea, Aelita grabbed my hands. "And you say you're lighter than Odd." Aelita said with a smile. "Could we refrain from jokes until I'm above solid ground?" I asked, fear present in my voice. Even though my body and mind were together again, I didn't feel myself when XANA's smoke invaded me.

As Aelita flew her way to the activated tower, I looked at myself. My vibrant green pattern was back, but my scythe had a blood-red crack in the blade, corrupting its natural emerald shine. Nearing the tower, Aelita landed on the ground and started walking to it. I pondered today's events: The Scyphozoa separating my mind, me accidentally taking control of Odd's, Ulrich's, and Kiwi's body, and almost betraying my friends' trust and loyalty for XANA. As I saw the tower's red glow turn back into blue, I heard Jeremie. "Good work you two, I'm bringing you back now." He said, before I was devirtualized by Jeremie's code.

* * *

When I found my consciousness, I was on the cold metal floor of the scanner room. Looking around, I saw Kiwi sitting on my chest, gaining some laughs from Jeremie and Odd. "Get off Kiwi, I need something to eat." I said to Odd's dog, who walked on me and licked my face. I grabbed him and put him on the ground, suddenly noticing that I didn't go into his body. "Umm just to clarify, you guys can see me right?" I asked the group as I stood up, with everyone nodding but Odd, who covered his eyes. "Oh no Jeremie, your boy-toy is still gone!" Odd said covering his eyes, trying not to laugh. "As if Odd, Jere-boy is my boy-toy." I said with a grin, lowering my voice when I said 'Jere-boy'. "Jere-what?" Everyone but me and Jeremie said. "He meant to say Jeremie guys, he just slurred it." My lover said, looking at me with some disappointment that I broke my promise.

"Jeremie, don't you remember that we should do a diagnosis on Sero due to the smoke entering him?" Aelita said, breaking the tension. "Oh yes, thanks Aelita. Sero, since we don't know what the smoke did to you, we need to do a scan to check it out." Jeremie said. "Just incase something did go wrong, so step back into the scanner." He added on with a lighter tone. "But Sero, what did XANA want with you?" Aelita asked the tough question. I wasn't sure if I wanted to answer but I had to tell them. "XANA wanted to-argh!" I said, interrupted by a sudden pain in my head, but I knew for sure that I took my medication. ""Don't you dare tell them the truth, if you value your life."" (AN: this voice will always be done with double quotation marks.) A foreign voice in my mind said, it wasn't anyone I knew, but I decided to comply. "He wanted me to surrender or die." I said, lying to the group to appease the voice in my head.

"Regardless if you're in your body and safe from XANA, we still need to do a diagnosis." Jeremie said, worried about what happened on Lyoko. "Please step back into the scanner Sero, I need to go back to the supercomputer." He added on. Knowing that I can't argue with him, I simply complied and entered the scanner while everyone else went into the elevator. After a while, I heard Jeremie's voice from above. "Don't worry Sero, this will only take a minute." He said. "Maybe you should try being trapped in a closet-sized area for what seems like days." I said as the scanner doors closed. With my claustrophobia kicking in, I closed my eyes and thought of the large, open area of the school park, but my imagination couldn't stop my phobia from making my body scared. When the scanner finally opened, I felt extremely light-headed and nauseous. "Umm Sero? You may want to come see this." I heard Jeremie say from the supercomputer. After stumbling a few times, I managed to enter the elevator and press the button.

Exiting the elevator, I caught the looks of the group. "You called me up Jeremie, so what is it?" I said to him, trying my best to walk in a straight line. "From what the scan shows, XANA implanted something into your brain, specifically the Parietal lobe." Jeremie said, giving me the bad news. ""Your body is indirectly under my control from now on. You will be my slave."" The voice said. "XANA I assume?" I said in my mind to the voice. ""You are correct, but knowing my name won't make me spare you."" XANA replied.

"What can we do Jeremie?" I said to my boyfriend. "Actually, nothing needs to be done. The inserted area looks harmless for now." He replied, oblivious of the true danger inside my mind. "Then can we go to dinner now? I'm STARVING." Odd said, rubbing his belly to add for effect. "And I need to go home, my parents may be worried." Yumi said, checking her phone. With XANA constantly giving me a headache, I had to get back to my room. "Look guys, I got to go now. I need to take my afternoon medicine." I said, lying about the medicine part, my only medication was the Gabapentin in the morning. I ran out of the building before the group could ask questions.

* * *

After I ran back to my room, I locked the door and looked at myself in the mirror. Everything about me looked the same, yet so different. My green streak of hair had a dash of crimson in it, my eyes wore a tired expression, my irises were a mess of green, red, and black, and even my hair had lost its blonde and brown luster and was replaced with an unnatural tone of black. Did all of this happen as I ran here or did my friends not notice at all?

"XANA, if you are trying to hide yourself, then you are failing at it. I look like a mess because of you and everyone will notice." I said in my mind, hoping that I truly wasn't going crazy. ""I will reluctantly agree with you, I can't let your 'friends' know of my presence within you. Let your body rest while I... Revise your appearance."" XANA said to me. Having no other choice, I changed into my pajamas and tried to go to sleep but my mind was too focused with recent events to allow it.

"Hey XANA, do you think you can make me fall asleep or something?" I quietly said to myself. Half an hour ago, I seemingly killed XANA and now I'm asking him to help me with sleeping. ""What am I, some kind of hypnotist? Just count Kanklerats or something."" XANA replied with very little advice. "Never mind, I'll just keep my eyes closed. But I want to ask one thing; how will you not just go away from my mind once we deactivate your tower?" I asked XANA.

""Very simple. Instead of using a single Way Tower in one of the four sectors, I have multiple in a hidden area which are partially activated. That way, your scans can't detect them since they only look for completely activated towers."" XANA replied. ""But don't bother trying to tell anyone. I'm in your head and I can notice if you try telling them in any way."" He added, ruining my chance for freedom. Sighing in defeat, I pulled my bed sheets over my head and starting trying to go to sleep...

* * *

As I woke up, I looked at the time which said 6:20 AM, May 10th. Getting out of bed, I looked at my mirror and noticed that XANA actually did change my look. The crimson in my green streak reduced to half a dozen strands mixed within the green, my eyes still looked tired but probably because I just woke up. My eyes had its dominant shade of green back with barely noticeable splotches of red and black, and my blonde color was back but the black tone of hair was still there, except it was just strands hiding in the brown area. After inspecting myself, I took my Gabapentin right before I suddenly heard a cry of pain.

""What did you just do? Are you trying to poisoning me!?"" I heard XANA yell from my mind. "I'm not intentionally getting rid of you yet. I'm just taking medication to keep me seizure-free." I said to him. Was my medication hurting him? Regardless, I can't take too much of it or I'll most likely kill myself in the process. "And besides, don't you have towers to activate or something?" I asked XANA. ""Fortunately for you, no. Whenever your ragtag group deactivate a tower, I have to wait for another tower's defenses to fall, which can take from mere hours to days."" XANA said. Did he only answer my questions because he knew I couldn't tell anyone, or was there another reason?

"Well if you don't mind, I'm going to do my morning routine unless you already have a plan for using me in world domination." I jokingly said to XANA. ""Lucky for you, I need more power from my hidden towers for me to be able to use your full potential."" XANA said, oblivious of my sarcasm. Sighing to myself, I grabbed my clothes of the day and went to the showers. As I made my way to a quiet corner of the shower room, I quickly washed myself clean and got dressed before Odd, Ulrich or Jeremie could come in. After checking my phone for the time, I went to the park and took a nap under a familiar tree...

* * *

AN: Chapter eleven (AKA CHPT. 10 pt. 2) is now done! Expect XANA to stay around for a while.

Review, favorite, follow. All of those things are welcome but never required!


	12. Bad Conditions Make Worse Outcomes

Hello everyone! The twelfth chapter is now up. Jeremie and Sero chapter.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

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(Jeremie's P.O.V, third person)

Jeremie woke up from the blaring alarm clock which said 6:50 AM May 10th. "At least it's Saturday." He said, muttering a small swear to himself. Jeremie decided to skip the shower and was about to get dressed when he thought about what happened to Sero yesterday. When he came out of the scanner unconscious, he looked so different, as if his body was slightly tampered by XANA. His hair, his eyes, he looked so unnatural but Jeremie never bothered to ask him about it.

Pushing the thoughts aside, Jeremie finished getting dressed and went to the cafeteria. Getting his breakfast, he sat down with Odd and Ulrich but noticed Sero's absence. "Hey have you two seen Sero today? I haven't heard from him since last night." Jeremie asked the couple. "I haven't seen him since." Ulrich said before drinking some milk. "I think I saw him going to the school park while talking to himself or something. He looked kinda conflicted." Odd said while finishing a chunk of meat. "I didn't see him enter the cafeteria too." He added, making Jeremie wonder about Sero's actions. Jeremie took only one bite of his toast before his curiosity got the best of him. "I need to look for him, maybe the diagnostic scan forgot something important." Jeremie said, pushing his plate full of food to Odd who accepted his gift. He got out of his seat and left the cafeteria, heading for the forest.

"Sero! Are you out here? I want to talk with you." Jeremie shouted as he explored the park, waiting for his boyfriend's response. When he said those words, he saw Sero fifteen metres away, sitting on a large tree branch while seemingly talking with himself. "Sero! What are you doing up there?" Jeremie asked him as he walked to the tree. Jeremie noticed that Sero's green streak still had an unnatural color of red in it, but in less quantity than the last time he saw him. His head of hair still had bits of black in it, which were longer than his brown hair. Noticing his lover, Sero muttered something and jumped from the branch he was standing on, landing gracefully on the ground. "How are your legs not hurt? That was easily a four metre drop!" Jeremie exclaimed in awe as he stared at Sero in confusion. While Sero was struggling to find an explanation, Jeremie looked at his eyes, which still had some black and red hiding inside his normally green irises. Something has to be going on.

"Have you been ok since that smoke entered you? You haven't looked like yourself recently." Jeremie asked Sero, who looked like he was arguing with his mind. "It's... Nothin- I can handle this X- I'm sorry Jeremie, just slightly preoccupied." Sero said, distracted by something. "Then can you explain the hair?" Jeremie said, wanting to know more. "I'm just... experimenting? Yeah, experimenting." Sero replied with some hesitation. "So what about the eyes?" Jeremie asked, pushing his lover to tell the truth. "Look I'm fine XA- I mean Jeremie. Just feeling off today, ok?" Sero said, his words showing his lack of focus. "Sero, you're a bad liar. Tell me the truth." Jeremie said, placing his hand on Sero's shoulder. He felt a slight static shock but ignored it.

"I'm sorry my love, but I can't tell you. For my safety and yours." Sero said, hugging Jeremie while accidentally sending him some stray static. Jeremie was about to kiss Sero but he pulled away, quickly grasping his head in pain. "Did you forget your meds again?" Jeremie hurriedly asked Sero, who removed his hand from his head. "No, just a passing headache. It happens to me often." Sero said, saying some words under his breath. "Look, can you at least come to breakfast? I already gave mine to Odd and I'm starving." Jeremie said, wanting to help his love however possible. "Ok I'll do it. For you." Sero said as the two walked from the tree where Sero was mumbling to himself. Sero glanced back, looking at the Eye Of XANA he had carved on the tree. He was hoping Jeremie would ask about it but he never noticed it...

* * *

(Sero's P.O.V, First person)

As me and Jeremie entered the cafeteria, I noticed Odd preparing to eat Jeremie's food but was interrupted by Ulrich tapping his shoulder. "Well the lovers are back, so why did you run off into the park Sero?" Ulrich asked me, slightly confused as he noticed the change in my hair. "And what's with your hair?" He added. ""I can make sure your friends don't return from Lyoko next time if you want me to."" XANA said with malice. Since this morning, he has tried to break my sanity to control me easier. I've tried my best to resist him but it's slowly becoming a losing fight. "I just needed some alone time, and I'm trying something new with the hair." I said, ignoring the evil voice in my head. I need to figure out someway to warn my friends of my problem. As me and Jeremie sat down, he took his food back from Odd and moved it between us.

"So Jeremie, have you found anything interesting in Lyoko such as new towers or the like?" I asked Jeremie, who started eating his reclaimed food. Thankfully, XANA didn't notice my subtle hint. "Actually, a new tunnel in Sector 5 has appeared! I haven't had the time to explore it, but it could lead to a new sector." Jeremie said, proud of his discovery in Lyoko. "We should go immediately! Who knows what we could find!" I said, trying to persuade my friends into going. 'So, hidden sector, Right XANA?' I said mentally to XANA, who sounded very displeased. ""It may no longer be hidden, but I promise once you set foot on the grounds of Lyoko, you won't come back the same."" XANA nearly shouted at me, putting all of his anger into his words. Now a trip to the sector wasn't such a great idea.

"Come on Einstein, today is Saturday. I want a bit of fun today besides..." Ulrich cut himself off with a tone of regret at the end of his sentence. "Besides you letting me be top last night?" Odd said, grinning while Ulrich couldn't help but blush and cover his face. "So that was the noise last night! Damn Ulrich, I'm surprised Jim didn't catch you." I said. "Bad sexual choices aside, who wants to see this new sector?" Jeremie said with a smile as he looked at us. Since I brought up the idea of investigating the new sector, I had no choice but to raise my hand while Odd and Ulrich did the same. "Great, now I'll just send messages about the new sector to Yumi and Aelita." Jeremie said. He suddenly looked at me and asked "Aren't you hungry Sero? I mean I haven't seen you eat at all." "I'm good, I'm not hungry at all." I said, lying to them. Strangely, since XANA entered my body, I have a near constant feeling of slight numbness along with feeling no pain, which somehow also meant not feeling hungry.

I heard Jeremie's phone vibrate as he was about to put it in his pocket. He opened it and sighed to himself. "Damn. Yumi has to help at home and Aelita did not respond." Jeremie said. "Maybe she is still in the showers, you know girls." Ulrich said, recovering his pride from Odd telling us what happened last night. "Let's go then. Last one to the factory has to be on bottom!" Odd exclaimed as he quickly got out of his seat and ran out the door. Ulrich cursed to himself as he quickly ran after him. Me and Jeremie just shrugged at each other and made our way to the factory...

* * *

As Jeremie and I exited the elevator and entered the room of the supercomputer, Ulrich and Odd were arguing about who was first. "I was first Odd! And besides, you pushed me." Ulrich yelled at Odd, who looked equally angry. "No way Ulrich, I was first because you pushed me out of the elevator!" He yelled back. ""I still have my offer of removing their virtualization codes available if you wish."" XANA suggested, which I swiftly ignored. Unfortunately, when I ignore him, he gives me a headache. Thankfully, they aren't as strong as my Ictal headaches. After pushing my headache aside, I broke the two up. "Calm down you two! We are here to explore a new sector and not argue about who was first!" I yelled at the two, leaving some anger in my voice. Normally I try to not show my anger, I usually bottle it inside my once-peaceful mind. The three were slightly stunned by my outburst, leaving me to talk. "Jeremie, please get the scanners ready for Sector 5." I calmly said to Jeremie as I decided to climb the ladder down to the scanners.

Dismounting at the bottom of the ladder, I entered the scanner opposite of the elevator. As I saw Odd and Ulrich exit the elevator, I pulled my hoodie over my eyes as they went in the other scanners. "Initiating scan. Transfer Odd. Transfer Sero. Transfer Ulrich." Jeremie said from above. As the scanners closed, my eyes instinctively closed, calming my claustrophobia. "Scanner Odd. Scanner Sero. Scanner Ulrich." Jeremie said. I felt like I was going to lose my consciousness with XANA making my phobia worse. "Virtualization." I heard Jeremie say before a bright light surrounded me...

* * *

I felt my body limply hit the artificial ground of Sector 5. I wanted to move but my muscles felt completely numb, my mouth wanted to speak but it felt like it has never been opened. "Hey Einstein, did something go wrong?" I heard Odd say above me. "What the? Apparently, Sero doesn't have full control of his body. I need to find out why." I heard Jeremie say from somewhere. ""Foolish Sero. Whenever you are in my world, I have greater control of you."" XANA said, proud of temporally disabling my body. I thought of what he said to me earlier today. "Odd... Lift me..." I managed to say with great difficulty. Odd didn't ask why and grabbed me off of the ground, immediately I felt control of my body and instantly activated my wings, leaving me to levitate off of the ground. "Huh? The issue vanished into thin air. Sero, I think you shouldn't touch the ground." Jeremie said from the computer. "Hey Jeremie, I think we have another issue here." Ulrich said, looking at me. The crimson crack in my scythe has expanded to cover most of the emerald blade and some of the handle, my wings became a schizophrenic mess of jade and ruby. My once vibrant patterns were a sickly black and dark green.

"That's strange, your appearance on Lyoko shouldn't change at all." Odd said, noting my appearance. ""Do you enjoy my handiwork? It would look better if you let me control your weak body."" XANA said, his voice had much more power in it on Lyoko than on Earth. "You won't get me that easy XANA." I said in my mind. ""What makes you think that you won? I have plenty of surprises, so just give in and touch the ground."" XANA replied with persuasion in his voice. I ignored him again and remembered what we had to do. "Let's go to that new tunnel, thank god Jeremie removed the key system." I said as Jeremie gave Ulrich and Odd their vehicles. Avoiding all surfaces, I lead the two out of the arena and to the Celestrial Dome. "Okay Jeremie we're here, so where is this new tunnel?" I asked him, wanting to get this expedition over. "The new tunnel is on the northern side of the dome." Jeremie replied. I looked behind and above me to see a tunnel just like the others. "Opening tunnel." Jeremie added as the information from the tunnel vanished, allowing us to enter it. "Hey Jeremie, quick question; what does this sector look like on the hologram?" Ulrich asked. "I think a better question is _where_ the sector is, it's not on the hologram at all." Jeremie said with uneasiness. "That's why it's called exploring Einstein! Let's go!" Odd said, making his way to the opened tunnel. Ulrich and I simply looked at each other and followed him into the unknown...

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AN: The twelfth chapter is now done! New sector, Ulrich making a bad choice, and Sero is slowly losing his sanity! What is there to not love?

Review + favorite + follow = A happy story writer, but only one of the three are needed!


	13. Breaking Point

Hello everyone! The (possibly unlucky) thirteenth chapter is now up! Lyoko for first part and a varied chapter.

Sorry for the long delay, I found myself with a bit of a Writer's block for two weeks so I couldn't get much done.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero. **

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(Sero's P.O.V, first person.)

As me, Odd, and Ulrich entered the unknown sector side by side, my body felt mind-shaking fear for the first time since I ran away to the orphanage long ago. The sector was a colossal graveyard as far as my eyes could bear. Various areas were split off, becoming islands in the eternal midnight sky. Sparsely spread, petrified Yew trees made unseen shadows over the incomplete mass of tombstones, some of which still had dug-up holes, as if a cancelled funeral was going to take place. At the far edge of the sector, I saw about seven towers clumped together, presumably the ones that XANA is using to control me. The fog of each tower had a slight tinge of red hiding in the friendly white. Obviously XANA made this sector just for controlling me and not for attacking Earth due to how close the towers were to each other. My mind couldn't take the emotional depression in the atmosphere before I heard a voice.

""You have seen enough, slave. Turn back now if you want to delay the inevitable."" XANA said to me. His control in my mind felt nearly as strong me touching the ground in Sector 5. I could barely resist him, let alone keep my wings active. I had to find an excuse to get out of here or something better... "Say XANA, just wondering but did you mention removing Odd's and Ulrich's code for devirtualization?" I asked XANA, already hatching a fragmented plan in my head. ""Wait wha-umm yes I did but why? I haven't removed the code yet."" XANA said, slightly surprised at my question. Without waiting for a response, I quickly slashed at Odd and Ulrich, safely devirtualizing them. Knowing what I had to do, I threw my scythe in front of myself, waiting for it to circle back to me. Once it sliced through me, I felt my body being (painfully) devirtualized back to Earth.

* * *

As I returned to Earth within my scanner, I already questioned myself; usually when I'm devirtualized, I become unconscious for some time but this wasn't the case. As the scanner door opened, I faked a painful migraine as Odd and Ulrich looked at me with crossed arms and an annoyed expression. "What the fuck Sero! Why did you turn on us?" Ulrich said angrily. A headache won't get me out of this situation. "Yeah seriously Sero, we weren't doing anything at all! What's your problem?" Odd added, just as angry. I was still trying to fake my headache when my love Jeremie came out of the elevator. "What's going on you three? One second you are fine and the other you all got devirtualized!" Jeremie said to us. ""The closer you are to Lyoko, the faster you will become mine. So come back and accept your fate you weak, pathetic, slave."" XANA bluntly suggested to me. My mind felt like it was going to snap. I had to get out of here. My anger against XANA... My bottled emotions... The near-constant headaches... "Sero, is something wrong?" Jeremie asked, placing his hand on my shoulder. I couldn't hold it back anymore. I let it all out.

"IT'S NOT OKAY! SOMETHING IS HAPPENING TO ME!" I shouted with anger and sadness on a scale I have never done before. I pushed my boyfriend away and ran past Odd and Ulrich into the elevator. As my foot touched the elevator floor, it started instantly, closing the door before the others could ask questions or say anything. When the elevator opened to show the main factory, I sobbed constantly until I reached one of the largest trees in the park. Wiping my tear-stained face, I climbed the tree until I reached two close, large branches which I sat on. I resumed crying until I heard a voice.

""You are a fool, letting down your mental barriers. Prepare to feel a pain second to none as you become my puppet!"" XANA said, exerting his full power on me. I started crying tears of pain and not sadness. My brain felt like it was going to implode from the massive headache, my Ictal headaches were like bug bites compared to this. The morning light blinded my eyes with each sound deafening me. I was completely clueless about my surroundings as I tripped and fell about six meters to the ground, landing directly on my spine. I lost my consciousness as I felt my body being controlled by a stronger force, but not before I saw shadows loom over me...

* * *

(Ulrich's P.O.V, first person.)

"IT'S NOT OKAY! SOMETHING IS HAPPENING TO ME!" Sero screamed and cried at the of his lungs, pushing his boyfriend away and running past me and Odd. The elevator seemingly activated for Sero once he entered it. The three of us were dumbstruck at Sero's outburst, it was a while before anyone said a word. "Jeremie, I think something is wrong with Sero." I said with a look of disbelief as I still had my eyes on the elevator. "It's always the nice, quiet ones who have the most anger inside themselves." Odd said with a sigh, hopelessly trying to lighten the mood. Jeremie continued staring silently at the elevator. "Jeremie!" I shouted to him, breaking his trance. "Oh sorry, what did you say Ulrich?" Jeremie asked, oblivious of what I said. "Einstein, your boyfriend snapped and ran off somewhere. We need to figure out what is happening before we find out the bad way." I said calmly. Sometimes love distracts Jeremie too much for his own good.

"Shouldn't we look for Sero first? I mean this could be a XANA attack." Odd suggested. "But that's impossible! The Superscan didn't detect any activated towers. " Jeremie said, emotionally shaken from Sero's actions. "Actually, before we were all devirtualized, I saw a cluster of towers at the far end of the sector. Each of them had a small amount of XANA's fog hiding in the normal white smoke." I replied, earning a look of disbelief from Jeremie. "Wait. So you are saying that you saw towers which were partially activated? Now that explains why I never discovered the sector sooner!" Jeremie said, surprised of XANA's new tactic. "But it doesn't make sense! XANA still can't use partial towers to make a Spectre, so what are those towers being used for?" Jeremie said to himself, confused of what XANA is trying to do. Walking to the elevator, Jeremie pressed the button, calling it down. "Now hold on Einstein, I remember you saying that XANA implanted something in Sero's brain, right?" Odd replied. What does XANA want with Sero? Why not Aelita instead? "Yes, the Parietal lobe specifically. I ignored most of the smaller details at first, but it is similar to a miniature brain, able to hold an independent conscious." Jeremie said as we entered the elevator. When the elevator starting moving, his face suddenly went sour.

"Are you starting to put some pieces of the puzzle together?" I said, looking at Jeremie's expression. "Hmm, the black smoke, change in behavior, different Lyoko outfit, the black-red eyes and hair, the implanted grey matter..." Jeremie said, listing the events that have happened to Sero while the elevator opened, showing the supercomputer. His facial expression suddenly became terror. "We need to get Aelita and go to the new sector! Sero may not have much time left." Jeremie exclaimed as he quickly sent a second text message to Aelita and Yumi. "Whoa Jeremie, what did your genius mind find out?" Odd said with worry as we entered the room. "Okay Odd, I'll try to make this as simple as possible; Sero may have XANA in his mind trying to turn him against us, so we need Aelita to find and deactivate the main tower of the sector to hopefully save him. Since Sero devirtualized you two, I recommend looking for him to distract XANA." Jeremie said as the elevator suddenly closed and went up, meaning that (hopefully) Yumi and/or Aelita are at the elevator.

"Looks like the girls are almost here. Let's hope this gets fixed ASAP." Jeremie said as he went to the supercomputer. Moments later, the elevator opened to show Yumi and Aelita, both with worried expressions. "Jeremie, is it true what is happening with Sero?" Aelita said with worry. Even though Yumi was her love, she always had a soft spot for Sero. "Aelita. For once, I hope I'm wrong." Jeremie said, his facial expression wanted this to be only a dream. "Now since Sero devirtualized Odd and Ulrich, you and Yumi are all we have besides... Well, you know who." Jeremie added, referring to William which made Odd shake with fear (AN: This William is after they save him from XANA, but the group didn't discover the Replikas.). William was always considered an 'off' kid by students and teachers alike.

About three and a half months ago, William lied to Odd about a XANA attack and took him to the woods and started to rape him near the manhole. He would've gotten away with it but XANA actually decided to attack, leaving the other Lyoko Warriors to witness William running away, leaving Odd on the grass curled up in the fetal position with his pants and boxers pulled down to his knees. Even after deactivating the tower and returning to the past, Odd was still traumatized to the point of breaking out in tears. With a unanimous vote, William was kicked out of the group. Since then, Odd only has trouble falling and staying asleep and still gets minor panic attacks along with hysteria when he see William.

"Jeremie..." I said, noticing Odd shake more. I held his hand to calm him down. "Don't even consider it." I said, letting go of Odd's hand once he stopped shaking. "Sorry, I forgot." Jeremie said. "Earth to Jeremie, your boyfriend is still under XANA's control." Yumi said, refocusing Jeremie to his task. "Apologies. Yumi and Aelita, take the ladder down while Ulrich and Odd take the elevator to find Sero." Jeremie said. We all nodded simultaneously as we started to make our plan work.

* * *

(Yumi's P.O.V, Third person.)

"Ladies first." Odd said, motioning towards the ladder as him and Ulrich entered the elevator. "I forgot to laugh at that one Odd." Yumi said with sarcasm in her voice. "After you Aelita." Yumi added, stepping to the side while Aelita started to climb down. "Is something wrong Yumi?" Aelita asked as she and Yumi stepped off of the ladder. "Just perplexed at how fast and easy it was for XANA to control Sero, even after going into Lyoko." Yumi said as she started walking towards the scanners. Due to fighting on Lyoko, the group gained a resistance to XANA's Spectres, which meant that Sero should've been perfectly fine. "I guess you do have a point, it's only been about nine hours or so since that smoke entered him." Aelita replied. Was Sero really good enough to help the group? Would he get captured again, but for good?

"Hey Jeremie, what does this sector look like?" Yumi asked. "And what's this 'main' tower you said in the text message?" Aelita added. "According to Ulrich's and Odd's visual feed, the sector is a giant, fragmented graveyard." Jeremie said. "And for the main tower part, there appears to be only seven towers, but they were clumped together and were all partially activated. The main tower though, is slightly more activated than the others. The main challenge is which figuring out which tower is the master tower." He added as Yumi and Aelita entered the scanners. "We're ready Jeremie." Aelita said. "Transfer Yumi. Transfer Aelita." Jeremie said as the scanners closed. "Scanner Yumi. Scanner Aelita." Jeremie added. "Virtualization."

* * *

(Odd's P.O.V, First person.)

Why did Jeremie have to bring _him_ up? We all agreed to tell no one about it, not even Sero. As Ulrich and I exited the sewers, we took a look around the nearby trees. "So, any ideas where our XANA-fied Sero is?" I asked Ulrich as we scanned the surroundings. "He will probably stay in the park. But be careful, XANA may try to pull a quick one on us." Ulrich said. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw movement. 'Over there.' I mouthed to Ulrich, discreetly pointing at the large tree where I saw the shadowy figure. We nodded to each other as we snuck our way to the tree, looking around for Sero.

"Over here, I see someone in a tree." Ulrich whispered to me as he nudged his head to one of the larger oak trees. Inspecting the tree, I saw Sero on the tree weeping to himself. As I was about to say something, he quickly held his head in pain with his eyes closed. Me and Ulrich quickly ran to Sero's tree only to watch him fall about six meters, landing on his spine. His eyes tearfully looked at both of us before they closed only to open up again, showing his irises completely covered in a dark red and black. Sometime after he ran away, his hair became a pure black with red mixed in. His pupils suddenly became the Eye of XANA. "How nice of you to drop in you weaklings." Sero said as he stood up while we backed up. His voice was similar to someone being controlled by a Spectre. "Hey Ulrich." I said. "Yeah?" He asked. "RUN!" I shouted, quickly turning around as we ran out of the park with Sero in tow.

"Hey Odd, do you actually have a plan?" Ulrich asked me as we ran from Sero, who was getting closer to us. "Who am I, Jeremie? Just make sure XANA is following us and keep running." I said, glancing behind me to see an extremely angry Sero, whose feet were leaving spare electricity with every step. Why XANA chose Sero I'll never know, but he clearly wants us dead. "Hey Ulrich, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I said, grinning at my plan. "You better **not** be thinking what I think you are thinking." He said back, looking at my eyes. "Too late!" I shouted, suddenly turning around to punch Sero, roughly hitting his nose. Due to how close he was to us, Sero couldn't react fast enough to use electricity or to dodge. He fell down to the ground and started flickering as any normal Spectre would.

"And that's what you get for saying that Ulrich was cheating on me for Sissi!" I yelled while Ulrich face-palmed himself. After his face-palm, Ulrich pulled out his phone to talk to someone. "Jeremie, any update on your end? Okay then. Yes I'll tell Odd. No jus-look Einstein, your boyfriend is about to resume attacking us, so goodbye." Ulrich said as he put his phone away while Sero got back up, but with more electricity flowing about him. "So what's going on in Lyoko? Did they find the right tower?" I asked, keeping an eye on Sero. "They know which tower is the master one, but they still have to reach the towers." Ulrich said as Sero started moving towards us. "Up for more running?" Ulrich added, looking at me. "I never thought you would ask me." I gladly said as we ran away from the XANA-fied Sero.

* * *

An: FINALLY DONE! As I said, I'm very sorry for the long delay. You can likely expect Chpt. 14 within the next week due to spring break.

Review, follow, fave. Do any or none. I'll still make these till my mind is empty!


	14. Our Horrible XANA Situation

Hello everyone! The fourteenth chapter is now up! First part is Lyoko-themed and Yumi-based with more varied goodness for you to enjoy.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

* * *

(Yumi's P.O.V, First person.)

_"Virtualization." _I heard Jeremie say as my vision suddenly went black, changing from the interior of the scanner to the Arena, the starting area of Sector 5. As I landed on the ground, I looked to my left to see Aelita, who was eager to save Sero. "We're here Jeremy. Where do we go now?" I said, waiting for the Arena to show the way out. "Just make your way out to the Celestrial Dome and I'll lead you from there." He replied as the entrance started to show itself. "Here is the Overwing, you'll need it to reach the Sector." Jeremie added as the Overwing materialized in front of me.

"Thanks. Are you ready to go Aelita?" I asked her formally. My family has upheld a tradition of being formal with your partner in public, hence why almost no one at Kadic except the gang know me and Aelita's love, but even them haven't seen much besides short kisses to the cheeks. "Ready when you are." Aelita replied as her vibrant pink wings appeared on her back. I nodded to her as I stepped on the Overwing. Surprisingly, the trip to the Celestrial Dome went off without a hitch.

"We are at the Celestrial Dome Jeremie, so now what?" I said as we waited by the Interface that Aelita once used to get access to XANA's memory, but since Lyoko was rebuilt it held no information. I thought about what happened so far and it has all been... off? There were no Mantas hatching, no surprise creeper attacks, not even the Scyphozoa trying to control Aelita. Is XANA focusing his power on Lyoko? With the uncomfortable emptiness, he is most likely putting his entire focus on Sero, who is now trying to kill Ulrich and Odd. "Okay girls, the tunnel to the new Sector is on the northern hemisphere." Jeremie said from the computer. "Einstein, I think we have a big problem." I replied, still cautious of the lack of attacks. "What's wrong, is something happening on Lyoko? I don't see any enemies." He asked, confusion in his voice.

"That's my point Jeremie, not a single monster at all. I think the boys need to know about this. Any luck on figuring which tower is the master control?" I said, hoping that XANA was about to attack me and Aelita. "I've nearly found out which tower is the master, but I need you two to enter the Sector first so we can make this end faster. I'll call Ulrich once I figured out which tower it is." Jeremie replied as he opened the information tunnel to the Sector. "The tunnel is now open, brace yourself once you enter." He added. "Thanks Jeremie, we are entering now." Aelita said, making her way to the open tunnel while I followed her.

Aelita suddenly stopped once we entered the sector. I was about to ask her something until I saw the Sector too. Even though the sullen air was already an emotional sinkhole, the gravestones awoke unwelcome memories from my mind of various Japanese wakes and funerals I have attended. Focusing on the task, I pushed those memories back into my mind while Aelita was still frozen with fear. "Aelita, you need to focus. XANA is playing a trick on us." I nearly yelled at her, which brought her attention back. "Thanks Yumi. It's just... my mind can't quite grasp the mood of the Sector." She replied as we moved towards the cluster of towers in the distance. I was still cautious of the lack of monsters in this new Sector. Surely XANA doesn't want to leave himself completely defenseless?

"Jeremie, do you know which tower it is now?" I asked as we continued our beeline to the towers. "Almost done, almost d- there we go! The central tower is the master control. Calling Ulrich now." Jeremie said as I heard him take off his headset. I pulled my attention back to the completely activated towers, which seemed to stay the same distance away from us. I gave a confused look to Aelita, who also noticed the anomaly.

"We aren't making progress Yumi, should we try to walk to the towers?" She suggested as we glanced at the ground. As if XANA wanted to remind us that we are in his realm, Aelita's wings suddenly vanished while the Overwing was devirtualized. We both fell to the ground, mere inches away from entering an empty grave that suddenly filled up. Aelita and I only gave a quick look to each other as we ran on foot, keeping our distance away from the dug-up holes and open tombs for fear of more traps.

* * *

(Odd's P.O.V, First person.)

If there was one I thing I shouldn't have done, it was punching the XANA-fied Sero in the nose. "Hey take it easy Sero, you could've killed me!" I yelled as I dodged another electric ball from him. He seemed to only focus on me at the moment, which was good for my better-than-friend Ulrich but not for my svelte (Why do the others think it is a made-up word?) physique. "Hey honey, care to help?" I jokingly asked Ulrich, who was trying to run around the maze of stray, but powerful, static electricity in the air that Sero was leaving behind. "Excuse me, just trying to get through a maze of potential death here!" Ulrich shouted as he struggled his way through the barely visible static surrounding him. I took another glance behind me to see that Sero suddenly gained interest in Ulrich.

"It was nice knowing you, Ulrich Stern. I hope I only have to say your wretched name this one time, unlike this slave of a body which I will never name." Sero gladly said as he moved his hand towards Ulrich, causing the airborne electricity to circle him as the static grew more compressed, trapping Ulrich inside. I had to do something... "GET AWAY FROM HIM!" I shouted as if it was a war-cry. Without clear nor rational thinking, I ran through enough electricity to free Ulrich, but a little too much for my mind to exhaust itself for forceful sleep...

* * *

(Ulrich's P.O.V, Third person.)

Ulrich could not believe his eyes for a second at what Odd just did, even the XANA-fied Sero was slightly dumbstruck. Out of nowhere, Odd suddenly ran through the static in front of him, saving his boyfriend while losing consciousness. Before the static could resume circling Ulrich, he ran and quickly grabbed Odd off of the ground. Ulrich decided to run from Sero and head for the manhole to the factory. "Odd, you are a crazy SOB, I hope you know that." Ulrich said, looking at his motionless but breathing boyfriend in his arms. We definitely needed to return to the past after this, since all the Lyoko Warriors were skipping their first period class plus Odd could go into a coma from all that static energy entering him.

"What's wrong, leaving so soon?" Sero said, gathering all the floating energy into one giant electric ball. Ulrich knew that he would most likely die if the ball touched him. The fear of death made Ulrich run only faster. After hearing something being launched in the air, all of Ulrich's hair stood up on ends, telling him to quickly dodge. He side-stepped to the left only to see an electric ball bigger than him hit a tree, blasting it into wooden shrapnel which showered everywhere. Brushing the wood off him, Ulrich took in a relaxed breath since Sero couldn't possibly make another electric ball so quickly. Ulrich continued running until he saw the manhole, after checking for Sero, he placed Odd on the ground before he removed the cover.

"Come on Odd wake up, I don't want to carry you down the ladder..." Ulrich said as he slightly shook his lover, who only stayed silent save for his slow breathing. Cursing to himself, he put Odd on himself piggyback-style, holding Odd's arms above his own shoulders. After getting used to Odd's weight, he slowly climbed down the ladder. Ulrich was about to get on Jeremie's scooter before he heard a massive 'boom' above him.

Ulrich looked up the ladder to see only fire, and lots of it. Focusing on the task, he quickly got on the scooter and called Jeremie. "We need a return to the past ASAP, Odd is unconscious and I think Sero set the park on fire. Are the girls at the tower yet?" Ulrich quickly asked Jeremie without waiting for a response. "Calm down Ulrich, Yumi got devirtualized by...something and Aelita is close to th-" Jeremie got cut off by a sudden connection loss. Ulrich was genuinely scared; XANA has never done anything this extreme. Was Sero's bottled up emotions a part of this? Nonetheless, Ulrich had to get Odd to the factory for safety. Ulrich put his phone away and made sure Odd was still hanging on him, which Odd confirmed by him starting to snore near Ulrich's ears. Ulrich couldn't help himself from smiling slightly when he saw the manhole to the exterior of the factory.

* * *

(Sero's P.O.V, First person.)

Pain.

Pain was the first and the last thing I felt when I fell off the tree. Before my body could react to it, XANA took full advantage of the pain and forced my conscious into the smaller implanted brain matter while he took control of my brain.

I felt my body run towards Odd while it left electricity, XANA's main type of attack. I was arms-distance away from electrocuting Odd, but then he suddenly decided to... Sucker punch me? "And that's what you get for saying that Ulrich was cheating on me for Sissi!" I heard Odd say as my XANA-fied body reflexed in pain, falling on the ground. Was Odd really mad about that? I saw Ulrich take out his phone and talk to someone. My body got back up against my futile will and started to chase them.

I gave up my hopeless fight, leaving me to helplessly watch XANA use my body to fight my only friends to the death. The instant I stopped resisting, I felt my conscious being repressed by XANA to a point that I was unable to see out of my former eyes.

_Was I good enough/_

_When I can't even resist/_

_Being his puppet?/_

It all became black.

* * *

AN: 14th chapter done! Sorry that this chapter took a bit of time and that It's also shorter, but I'm not exactly sure what to put next without being cliché. But like I said before, personal life takes priority, and since school is now into the SAT's and ACT's for the rest of the month, I won't try to promise another chapter until testing is completely done.

Review/favorite/follow. It will be a bit of a boost for me.


	15. Conclusions Lead to More Trouble

Hello everyone! The fifteenth chapter is finally up after school testing! Some more Lyoko action with a (hopefully) great conclusion of XANA and Sero. XANA is still staying, but he just won't be stuck inside someone's head :p. Also includes a surprise at the end.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

* * *

(Aelita's P.O.V, Third person.)

As Yumi and Aelita ran to the now closer towers, they dodged what seemed like hundreds of traps, which included tripwire, Pitfalls, and Snares. Aelita noticed no monsters at all, only more and more traps. "Why does XANA insist on traps but not Krabs or Mekatanks? This is making no sense." Yumi wheezed out as she jumped over another empty grave that refilled itself. "Well at least we are actually getting closer to the towers!" Aelita said right after expertly jumping over a set of snares and net traps. She was correct, since the master tower was about two hundred meters away. "Jeremie, what's up with these traps? It's not like XANA at all!" Yumi said accidentally setting off a pressure plate, which opened a giant grave in front of the two. "Oh cra-" Yumi said, falling into the grave which re-filled immediately, devirtualizing her. Aelita fared better, running over the filled grave since she was slightly behind Yumi.

"Jeremie, what is XANA up to?!" Aelita said as she was getting closer to the master tower. "I have no idea, this tactic of XANA is new to me. I'm calling Ulrich to update him on what's happening." Jeremie said, removing his microphone to make a phone call. While continuing her way to the tower, Aelita suddenly stopped in her tracks as she felt the gloom, deathly atmosphere claw back at her mind. The fog in the air was seemingly talking to her; 'Give up...' 'Turn back.' 'Surrender...' were some of the things that the malicious air said to her. The talking fog circled Aelita, making her fall to the ground with her hands on her head. The mist compressed into a form resembling...

"Sero? Is- is that you?" Aelita said, teary eyed. The figure only pointed at her. "You are the only reason XANA has my body; you never helped me stop him. You have only yourself to blame for Odd losing his life and you will blame yourself for the park fire destroying the school!" The figure said, making some of the fog into a small, desk-sized tablet, which shown Sero finish electrocuting Odd to death while busily shocking Ulrich. The background shown the entire school burned down to the ground, quickly switching images to the Hermitage, which was starting to catch fire. It finally switched to the factory, showing Yumi and Jeremie lifelessly still on the ground. The last image revealed Aelita's face, with a solid red Eye of XANA in each pupil. "Aelita, snap out of it! Odd and Ulrich are okay and the park fire is now contained. Those visions are fake!" Jeremie yelled at Aelita, noticing her life points being drained by an unknown source.

The figure of Sero only walked closer to Aelita while it silently fashioned some of the fog into a scythe. "You will be the reason your friends will fall while our glorious lord XANA can only succeed!" Sero said, preparing his scythe for a final blow. "No." Aelita said, quickly preparing an Energy Field which she pointed at the figure's chest. "Energy Field!" Aelita screamed, shooting the sphere at Sero, who didn't have time to dodge. The sphere hit him directly in the chest, making the fog around Aelita disperse in the atmosphere. "Aelita, Ulrich may not have much time so deactivate the master tower before it's too late." Jeremie said with slight impatience. "Got it Jeremie. Entering the tower now." Aelita replied, noticing how close she was to the master tower. She couldn't help herself from looking up but once she did, Aelita wished that she instead just went into the tower.

All seven of the towers were in a perfect hexagonal shape with the master tower in the center (AN: think of the six other towers as the points where the sides would meet.). The red fog was shared between each tower, making a large red cloud near the main tower. Aelita only sighed and entered the tower. Deactivating towers felt like a time-honored tradition to her. As she walked to the center of the first platform, she looked up and cleared her conscious, allowing her to ascend to the second platform. Approaching the command console, she contacted Jeremie. "Activate a tower for me Jeremie, I may need the extra power for this." Aelita said, taking note of several red panels of coding moving through the usual blue information. A few moments passed before he spoke. "Your support tower is now active. Please hurry Aelita." Jeremie replied, trying to hold back tears. She felt the power of Jeremie's tower flow through her body. Using her magnified power, she placed her right hand on the console.

* * *

(Ulrich's P.O.V, First person.)

I would be a liar if I thought that Sero would give up his chase. I would be a bigger liar than Sissi if I said... Well who IS a bigger liar than Sissi? Nonetheless, as I was about to make sure that Odd was keeping a steady Koala-like grip on me, I saw an unfortunately familiar person. "I WILL KILL YOU DELLA ROBBIA!" A XANA-fied Sero yelled at the top of his lungs. He was running right towards me, so I had no choice but to climb up the ladder to the factory. After exiting the manhole, I closed the hole back up to slow down Sero. Because Odd was still unconscious, I took the stairs down, which ended opposite of the elevator. After placing Odd on the ground near the elevator and calling it up, I looked behind me when I felt my hairs sticking up.

"Insolent fool! You will never outlast me. And if you truly think you can, then good luck." Sero said, cracking his neck. I had to distract him from Odd and stop him from reaching the elevator. Suddenly, my mind made its craziest idea ever. "I can outlast you XANA, but on two conditions: One, you can't use your super strength. And two, no electricity. Let's make this a fight of human power." I said, slightly surprised at my response. If Odd was conscious, he would probably call me a crazier idiot than himself. Sero only chuckled at my words. "When have you become as rash and reckless as this slave I control? No matter, I agree to this useless duel." He said with an evil grin on his face. XANA prepared himself while I go into my Pencak Silat stance.

"now we bow for good sport XANA." I said, bowing down. I was waiting for him to do the same but he charged right at me and did a karate chop. Luckily I was able to dodge it, grabbing his hand in the process. "You never said I had to play in fairness!" XANA said in delight as he freed himself from my grip, throwing constant punches for me to dodge one after another. XANA was relentless, even without using his super strength. If XANA wants an unfair fight, he will get one. I quickly grabbed both of his hands, using momentum to launch him over my head and on the hard concrete. Sero landed roughly on his spine with an audible "thud", followed by the Spectre inside him making his body flicker.

"Come on Aelita, anytime you want to go deactivate the tower would be nice." I said, taking a moment to gather my energy while I kept an eye on Sero. As I readied myself to lunge at him, I was surprised at what I heard next. "Help... help me." I heard Sero say in his normal voice as he struggled to stand up. I raced over to help him up, saying "Thank god you're back Sero, I thought you were gone for good!" But as I started to help him up, my body felt a dangerous sign; static electricity. Sero looked into my eyes, showing the Eye of XANA instead of his former green irises. "Oh don't worry, he is gone for good." XANA said as he grabbed my shirt. As XANA lifted me into the air, I felt a sense of déjà vu, remembering the first time Sero was controlled by a Spectre. Except this wasn't a Spectre, this was XANA itself.

"Say goodbye to your pitiful world, but be happy. Odd will join you." XANA said, letting his nigh-infinite source of electricity flow through my body. I was waiting for sweet release of death, but I was more than relieved when the electricity stopped shocking me to my unwanted wish.

"NOOOoOOooooo..." XANA said in sudden surprise as an extremely large cloud of dark smoke, easily ten times the amount of a normal Spectre's, erupted from Sero's body. Looking into Sero's eyes, I saw the best color in this situation; pure green.

* * *

(Aelita's P.O.V, Third person.)

AELITA

She put on a light-hearted smile as the text changed.

CODE:

LYOKO

"Tower deactivated." Aelita said with relief as this sub-chapter of the group's life was over.

* * *

(Sero's P.O.V, First person.)

_"NOOOoOOooooo..." _Was the last thing I heard XANA said.

When his power over my mind quickly receded, it all came back to me. I found myself looking eye-to-eye with Ulrich, who I was holding with my left hand. Right behind him I saw an open elevator with Odd, who looked unconscious, lying on the ground besides it. "I felt like... We've been through this before." I said with a slight smile, letting both of us drop to the ground due to fatigue. "You look like a mess." Ulrich said as he took a glance to Odd. "Next time, tell Odd not to sucker-punch me just because I had to wake him up." I said, panting as I got used to my body. I felt my body freeze when the return to the past hit me, Ulrich, and Odd.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I saw myself inside of a scanner. Before I thought of screaming due to my claustrophobia, the scanner doors opened, showing all the gang members looking at me, albeit Odd had his hands covering his eyes again, only completely this time. "Is this scanner supposed to be empty?" I said jokingly to the group, earning a small chuckle from Ulrich and the others except Odd. "Hey Jeremie! I think your lover is still a ghost." Odd said with a cocky attitude. Grinning to myself, only Ulrich knew what I was going to do next. Walking towards him, I waved my hand in front of him, making sure he couldn't see me at all. Yumi, Aelita, and Jeremie were confused at what I was going to do while Ulrich was trying his best to not laugh his heart out.

"Umm guys? Is Sero actually he- OW!" Odd said, uncovering his eyes right when I punched him in the gut. (AN: Remember Sero is a bit on the weak side.) Ulrich couldn't help himself from bursting into laughter. "And that's what you get for sucker-punching me just because I lied about Ulrich and Sissi to wake you up." I said to him, nearly eye-level with him. Odd looked pretty pissed, with how he pushed me away and gave Ulrich the stink-eye, which shut him up fast. "So what time is it? This day seems so far ago since XANA took my body." I said, subtly putting more distance between me and Odd. "It is May 9th, and we have about fifteen minutes of lunch left." Aelita replied, checking her phone. "Side question Aelita; got a mirror I can borrow? I want to know myself that my hair is 100% XANA-free." I replied, putting a hand through my hopefully blondish-brown hair. Aelita only nodded at my request, handing me her make-up mirror. I blushed slightly as I took it from her. Opening it up, I looked into the mirror, smiling when I saw my hair back to normal. I handed the make-up back to Aelita when I heard Jeremie speak.

"Well, who's up for lunch now?" Jeremie said with his sexy grin on his face.

* * *

Since Odd was starting to act like a dick against me, I decided to go to the Student Recreation room when I finished eating. Scanning the room, I saw a caucasian student with dark black hair watching T.V. Mentally shrugging to myself, I sat down on the couch near him.

"Never seen you around here before kid. What's your name?" The older boy said, glancing at my small stature and shyness surrounding me.

"I could ask the same about you, but do we share a class together?" I asked, scanning his body; he had a bad-boy attitude in his voice but besides that, he seemed like a great guy.

"I think we share after-school swimming together. But I'll ask again; what's your name?" He asked. he seemed slightly persistent, but not in a stubborn way.

"My name is Sero. Just Sero." I said, hoping he wouldn't ask about my last name. The student looked around the room, as if wanting to avoid some kids.

"My name is William Dunbar, but you can just call me Will if you want to become friends." William said, holding out a hand, waiting for me to shake it.

Without hesitation, I grabbed his hand and shook it right when the bell rang.

* * *

AN: Chapter fifteen is now complete! Even though Sero is free from XANA at the moment, can he ever stay friends with the Lyoko Warriors and their ex-member, William?

Review/Favorite/Follow. doing these give a bigger boost for me. :D

NOTE #1: Even though testing is now over, I will revise my upload promise to every other week since this helps me work better without as much stress.


	16. An Unfortunate Time for Overreaction

Hello everyone! The sixteenth chapter is now up! This chapter includes more of Sero's and William's friendship while the other Lyoko warriors start to take notice of it.

This chapter is slightly shorter since I'm trying to get used to writing with less action available.

(Just putting this out there, but there won't be any WilliamXSero lemon or lime. Sorry for bursting your bubble of love for William. but I do promise to not intentionally bash him too much :].)

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

* * *

(Ulrich's P.O.V, Third person.)

Ulrich woke up from his alarm clock, which said 6:45 AM, May 10th. Rubbing his eyes followed by a yawn, Ulrich looked at Odd, his snoring soul mate. After shaking Odd which didn't wake him up, he give him a small yet concentrated pinch on his uncovered arm.

"Ow! What was that for? I was having the best dream about us!" Odd yelled, rubbing his pinched area. "It's because I'm tired of thinking of new lies about me and Sissi doing various things. Wake up, it's time for breakfast." Ulrich said, changing into his morning clothes while Odd was sluggishly doing the same. When both got dressed, Ulrich snuck a kiss on Odd's cheek, making him blush slightly.

After the two got their breakfast, they sat down opposite of Aelita and Jeremie. Noticing someone's absence, Odd spoke up. "Hey Jer, where's that boyfriend of yours?" Odd said, leaving some anger in his voice. Jeremie was about to scold him when he saw what could've been his terrifying sight ever. Odd was about to look but Ulrich grabbed his hand, signaling to him that it was someone he shouldn't see. "No way..." Aelita said with a small gasp. Still holding on Odd's hand, Ulrich looked behind him to see two people getting their breakfast. One of them was a familiar face, the other brought unwanted memories back.

"Is that Sero... and you-know-who?" Jeremie said in a hushed voice, looking at Sero and William going to a separate table away from the group. "What's Sero doing with him?" Ulrich said, watching the two eating their food, pausing to talk to each other. Even though Odd wasn't looking for the sake of his mental health, he figured out what was happening. The only reason Ulrich could figure out why Sero was with William is that he wanted some distance away from Odd, which incidentally included the group.

"How can we tell Sero about his new friend without hurting his feelings?" Jeremie said, looking at Sero and William. Aelita was about to go talk with the two but the first bell of the day rang, telling everyone to go to class.

* * *

(Odd's P.O.V, First person.)

"Pick up the pace you lazy students!" Jim said, leading the class to the Track field. If I could only say one good thing about my P.E class, it would be that the entire gang minus Yumi was in it. I kept a wary eye on Sero, who was in the back of the group. "Now that we all dragged our feet here, I will start today's exercise." Jim continued, shifting his focus to various people of the class. "Today's exercise will be a one-on-one 100m dash, which everyone will take part in. Stern! Belpois! you two are up first." Jim shouted, blowing into his whistle. Once Ulrich and Jeremie walked to the starting line, I already started dozing off since I automatically knew who would win. I woke back up when I heard Jimbo blow into his whistle again.

"Very impressive Stern." Jim said, patting Ulrich's back. "Belpois! Horrible time, but you are improving slightly." He added as he looked back at the class. Rubbing the fatigue out of my eyes, I saw Jim looking at me. "Della Robbia! Sero! You two are next." He said, waiting for us to walk to the starting line. As I readied my pose, Sero did the same to the right of me. I took this opportunity to talk to him. "Hey Sero, I need to talk to you about something." I said, shifting my pose when Jim yelled. "On your mark!" Blowing into his whistle again. "I already know Odd. You are just a walking joke machine that can't handle a simple insult." Sero said bluntly, leaving his bitter words in the air.

"Get set!" Jim yelled. "It's not that Sero, it's about your new 'friend'." I replied back, ignoring his emotions. "GO!" Jim shouted, blowing into his whistle another time. We both starting running the instant the whistle went off. Thankfully, me and Sero are both kind of slow pokes, so we were still close to each other. "Look Sero just listen to me. Your new friend is nothing but trou-" "His name is William, so stop trying to avoid it! Me and William are just good friends. If you have a problem about it, bring it up to him." Sero said, interrupting me. I wish I could just tell him why I can't even bring myself to _say_ his name, let alone look at him. Suddenly my mind thought of that horrible day when William took advantage of me, forcing my body into a panic attack mere meters away from the finish line while Sero kept running, ignoring my condition. Sero likely interpreted my rapid breathing as a sign of fatigue as he took first place.

"And time!" Jim said, looking at his stopwatch. "-Is what I would've said if I started this damn thing. Very good race Sero!" Jim added, inadvertently ignoring my panic attack. My mind felt dizzy while my body felt overwhelming numbness everywhere. I was sweating worse than ever, added by the fact that my chest was in knots. I fell to the ground, my muscles and brain too shaken to move. My body lapsed into unconsciousness shortly after I heard many pairs of feet running towards me...

* * *

(Sero's P.O.V, First person.)

After beating Odd in the race thanks to his low stamina, I walked back to the group only to watch the others run past me. Puzzled, I looked back to see Odd unconscious and lying on the ground, whose mind looked like it was in a mental war. "Out of the way, he needs to go to the infirmary!" Ulrich said, pushing others out-of-the-way to give Odd room. Jim seemed to understand the situation as he came back to my unconscious ex-friend with a stretcher. "Sorry for the interruption everyone. Jonathan, you are now the temporary supervisor until I come back." Jim said, pointing to one of the older students who only nodded. Jim handed the student his clipboard before helping Ulrich with the stretcher. As the two hurried off into the general direction of the infirmary, Jeremie and Aelita walked over to me.

"What happened to Odd? Did he get a heat stroke or something?" I ask the two as we broke off from the main group. I could tell just by looking at them that it was something more complicated. "We need to talk to you about William." Aelita said, inspecting me as if I was trying to hide something. "What is there to talk about? I mean we just hang out during lunch and breakfast, usually in the Rec. room." I said truthfully. William has treated me nice for the last day. The only thing I saw kinda weird is that he insisted that we don't eat with my friends. "You mean that none of us told you about him?" Aelita said, slightly worried. "Told me about what? Does that have to do with Odd fainting?" I said, noticing that Jim was coming back from the infirmary, but without Ulrich. Jim promptly took his clipboard back from the older student and ordered us back into a line.

"We'll tell you later after classes, but please promise me this Sero; stay away from William, he'll use you against us." Jeremie said. "I promise, my love." I replied as the bell rang. "One more thing Sero; Don't go alone with him. No matter what." Aelita added. I nodded as me, Jeremie and the other boys went to the boy's locker room while the girls went to their locker room.

* * *

"So Sero, what was it that you wanted to know?" William said to me. We were by the tree which faced the vending machines. Before I go to my friends, I needed to see if I could get any information from William himself. In my opinion, I would rather break a small promise than potentially take biased information from my friends.

"I want to know if you've ever done anything with my friends. You know, Jeremie and the others." I asked him, looking at his pose. He seemed uncomfortable and secretive, much different when we last talked. He looked to his left and right, seeing if someone was trying to eavesdrop on us. "I was a part of the Lyoko warriors and I know that you are too." He said completely calm like as if he was okay with being kicked out. "So why were you kicked out? I mean, you seem like a nice guy to me." I replied with honesty. In fact, William looked like he would never hurt anyone. "I'll just say that I had... a misunderstanding with Odd that got me kicked out." William said with a barely noticeable frown on his face; showing that he regretted his action that got him kicked out.

"Word of advice Sero; If you aren't careful, XANA will keep you as a slave in Lyoko for months. Like he did to me." He added, his anger at XANA showing. Months? I barely lasted an entire day on Earth before XANA got to me, and William kept faith in himself for months. Faith that kept him going while I simply gave up. "Well I got to go for now William, so bye. And thanks for the XANA advice." I said, walking away from him when I thought of something. "Come with me William, I want to know something." I said to William, who just nodded and followed me. I started to make my way to Jeremie's dorm. Maybe there is more to William than what my friends say.

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AN: The sixteenth chapter is now done! Sero's friends say that William is full of trouble but it seems William wants to make amends?! Was William in full control of himself during that day he got kicked out? I guess you will have to wait until the seventeenth chapter is out. :P

Fav/Review/Follow. do any and it gives that boost of writing power!


	17. A History of Unfortunate Consequences

Hello everyone! the seventeenth chapter is now up! Sero wants to hear what has to say about William, so he brings him along! Was it a wise move, or the worst thing he has ever done? Read on to find out!

WARNING: No real action at all in this chapter. This chapter is more for patching up some holes and to help get the **real **fun starting. :]

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

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(Ulrich's P.O.V, First person.)

"Are you sure he would come? William may have already gotten to him." I said with bitter distaste, not caring if Jeremie, Aelita, or Yumi said anything about it. William was lucky that a return to the past saved him from jail time. "Calm down Ulrich, it's not like a full-blown XANA attack." Jeremie said, trying to reassure me. Before Aelita was about to open the door to look for Sero, a knock came at the door. "Hey guys, is Odd in there? I don't want him to flip out on me." Sero said from the other side of the door. After his panic attack, I took Odd to our dorm room so he could pull himself back together. "No he's not. So are you going to come in?" Yumi said, taking her earbuds out. "Okay then, but can you guys promise to not go crazy once I open this door?" Sero replied, his voice slightly faltering.

"Oh for crying out loud, just get in here before we do-" Jeremie said, opening the door to see Sero and William standing on the other side. It was quiet for a few seconds before someone spoke up. "Look guys, I know you think I did horrible things but just listen to Sero and-" "What the fuck are you thinking Sero?! Is your brain going soft?" I nearly shouted back, interrupting William while glaring at the two. "Calm down Ulrich. Yes I know what happened to Odd months ago was wrong but you need to listen to me for once." William said with regret in his voice. "Give him a chance Ulrich; people can change for the good of others and themselves." Sero pleaded, looking at the group for approval. Jeremie, Aelita, and Yumi looked at each other, sending silent nods of agreement. They all finally looked at me, waiting for my response.

"Alright fine come in, but you aren't getting back into the Lyoko Warriors for the sake of Odd's mental health." I said, giving into the peer pressure of my friends. "I didn't want to rejoin you guys, I only want Sero to hear both sides of the story." William said, moving away from the door Sero can come through. Sero whispered something inaudible to Jeremie, who only nodded with a small smile on his face. William closed the door after he came in, sitting next to Jeremie and Sero on the bed. The girls were standing by Jeremie's computer while I leaned on the wall opposite the bed.

"So now that everyone minus Odd is here, what did you wanted to tell me about William?" Sero said, looking at me. "And before you tell him, I didn't tell Sero anything about what I expect you to say about me, Ulrich." William added. I was still uneasy about this, but it does seem like William is regretting that he raped Odd. "Ok, I'll tell the story now. The beginning has some holes in it since Odd doesn't want to talk about it often." I said, glancing at William, who looked completely neutral so far. Sero only gave a slight nod as he looked at me, waiting for the Lyoko Warrior's side of the story.

"Sometime in late January, William told Odd that there was a XANA attack which Jeremie called him about." I said, looking at Jeremie. "On that note; I did call him about the attack, but he didn't pick up, which is extremely confusing." Jeremie said, waiting for me to resume the story. "Continuing, William led Odd to the manhole where he raped him and left him there for us to find out. When we got there, we saw William run away while Odd was on the ground in the fetal position with his pants and boxers pulled down." I resumed, looking at Sero who stayed calm while William did the same. Did he really do it? "Another strange thing is that Odd wasn't bleeding from you-know-where, which would usually happen during a rape." Aelita added, putting a slight grimace on her face. I never took notes of these smaller details. Did my anger at William ignore the little things?

"After that, we decided not to chase William and instead went to deactivate the tower ASAP. One return to the past later, the rape never technically happened but Odd still had psychological problems so we kicked out William for the sake of Odd's sanity." I said, finishing up the Lyoko Warrior's side of the story. Sero looked slightly dumbfounded but was otherwise calm. William took in a breath and stood up. "Thanks Ulrich. Now for my side of the story which is just as surprising." William said as he started to recollect his memories of the incident. I sat down on the bed by Sero.

"before Odd supposedly got raped, I was in the Rec. room relaxing when I exited to see Odd and.. well." William slightly stumbled before continuing. "I saw him with me." He finished saying, which shocked the group down to the core. It was quiet for a good few seconds before Jeremie figured it out. "So the William with Odd was-" "A Spectre, correct." William said, finishing Jeremie's sentence. "But wait, why didn't the Spectre just electrocute Odd or something? I mean rape just sounds like overkill." Sero said, scratching his head in confusion. "I think I have an answer to that. And it is to divide and conquer." Aelita said. Her closed, slightly scrunched eyes showed us that she was deep in thought. "Why do temporary damage that is easily removable by a time reversion when you can do something terrible enough to remove a member from the group possibly for good?" Aelita added, opening her eyes. "Now this is even more confusing! But we should let William finish his side of the story." Yumi said, wanting to let William continue his version of the events.

"Thanks Yumi. Like I was saying, Odd followed the William Spectre into the woods. Naturally, I was concerned about Odd being kidnapped or something so I secretly stalked the two into the woods. When I saw Odd again, there was a shadow of a Spectre entering his body, but instead of him trying to kill us, he looked he was fighting off some invisible power. I tried to help him but he pushed me away, saying something like "Stay away from me!" He then for some reason pulled his pants down and went into the fetal position not before shocking me with electricity. Knowing that I couldn't do anything, I ran off to find you guys." William said, finishing his side of the story with a perplexed look on his face. "And you running away from the Spectre-crazed Odd was what we saw!" I said in realization; William never raped Odd. There wasn't even a rape at all. XANA used a Spectre to forcibly make Odd think it _did_ happen, a thought which didn't go away from the time reversion. We all jumped out of our skin when we heard a familiar pattern of knocks on the door.

"Hey Jer and Ulrich, it's Odd! I'm coming in!"

* * *

(William's P.O.V, First person)

We are officially screwed.

We all looked at each other, sending worried looks. "Please tell me you locked the door William." Ulrich mouthed to me. I only nodded at him as I looked at the door. There is no way out of this. Jeremie's room wasn't on ground level so Yumi, Aelita, Sero and I couldn't just hop out the window and there is no way four people at once can hide in his room to begin with. "Wait don't come in yet Odd we are finishing up something!" Jeremie said hastily, which did have some truth to it. "Oh fine, I'll just use your spare room key that you lent to me." Odd said, the sound of a jingling key chain made us froze with fear. Someone had to think of something, even if it would embarrass the hell out of one of us.

"Don't come in Odd, I'm helping Jeremie with some new underwear!" Ulrich said with no second thought of what he just said. All that Jeremie could do was facepalm while everyone else stayed quiet with silent grins on their face. "Now THIS I got to see!" Odd said with delight as he opened the door. His face quickly went from happy-as-hell to get-me-out-of-this-nightmare. He looked at Sero, then the girls, then Ulrich and Jeremie, leaving his eyes to look at me. He quickly moved his eyes from me and only looked at Ulrich. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Sero was inspecting Odd, as if he was unintentionally hiding something. "What. The. Fuck." Odd said with visible anger and panic. "Is going on in here?" He added, pointing at me. I decided to stay quiet so me and Odd could avoid trouble. Jeremie spoke up. "It's not what you think Odd, we were just telling Sero about-" "How could you do this to me! You let this... this MONSTER back into the group, I thought you guys cared about me!" Odd interrupted Jeremie with anger deep in his voice. "If you guys want that horrible person back, then you can do it without me!" Odd yelled back while tears ran down his face. He slammed the door shut as he ran out of the room, leaving us to take in what just happened.

"Ulrich, has Odd always been this overreactive when it comes to William?" Yumi asked Ulrich, who kept his eyes on the door. "Nothing this extreme, but yes, he has gone a bit over the top sometimes about it." Ulrich replied, trying to keep a consistent tone in his voice. "Whatever XANA did to his mind must've been horrible." Aelita said, wanting to discreetly move the subject away from what just happened. "Jeremie, since Odd got attacked by XANA about four months ago, has there been any difference to the frequency of attacks or similar things?" I asked Jeremie, seeing if there was a connection to Odd. "Only for about two months did attacks reduce, with none of them needing any time reversion. After that, it became normal again before increasing in frequency when Sero joined the group. All of those attacks needed a time reversion due to serious injuries." Jeremie said, looking at notes he made of every single XANA attack. "Like when Sero's legs got crushed under that tree branch in mid-late April." Yumi said, wishing to inject some humour into the conversation. Sero didn't respond to the remark, besides, we just noticed that he never moved or talked since Odd ran out the room. He still stared at the door albiet with his eyes closed, trying to search for an answer.

"Umm Sero are you there?" Jeremie said, waving his hands in front of him. When that didn't work, I sat back down near him and put my hand on his shoulder, slightly shaking it. "Hey Ser (This is William's nickname for Sero. I'm just telling you this now so you don't think it is a spelling error.), figuring out something in that mind of yours?" I said, noticing that Jeremie was staring at me with hostility. Were the two in love or something? Eh, they would be a good pair for each other and besides, Sero's not my type. I decided to remove my hand from Sero's shoulder.

"Something is horribly wrong with Odd." Sero said, opening his eyes.

* * *

AN: Chapter seventeenth is now done! With Odd having a breakdown, the others must figure out how to tell him about XANA and William and what REALLY happened. Speaking of which, what is our old 'friend' XANA up to? Who knows; it could all end for the better or everything will go downhill!

Favorite. Review. Follow. I enjoy all of them, including constructive criticism!


	18. An Unfortunate Secret

Hello everyone! The Eighteenth chapter is now up! After Odd's little episode, Sero notices something wrong with him that the others missed. Is this XANA's doing? Is Odd going insane? Am I going insane? maybe all three of those are happening at once, but who knows. Read on to find out. (Hint; I'm clearly not going insane with how good these chapters are getting :P.)

NOTE: This chapter marks the 2000th view on this story! Just felt like I wanted to share this accomplishment with my readers. :]

ADDITIONAL NOTE: I have finally figured out how to have an image for my story. Tell me if you like it and P.S, it's the symbol on Sero's hoodie :p.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

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(Sero's P.O.V, First person.)

"Something is horribly wrong with Odd." I said, opening my eyes. The time between Odd stepping into the room and leaving in a fit of rage, I saw something about him which was off. When he left, I ignored the other's chatter except for the part when Jeremie said that after Odd got his mind turned inside-out by XANA, attacks slowed down before going back to normal. "What do you mean something is wrong with Odd? He looked perfectly fine to me." Ulrich said, leaning on the wall by the door.

"Ulrich, does Odd have a journal or something he uses to keep his thoughts in?" I asked him, hoping that my suspicion was fake. "He sometimes uses his sketchbook to draw things he sees during the day and stuff like that." Ulrich replied, attempting to figure what I'm trying to do. "But can you tell me what you think is wrong with Odd?" He added, looking at me. "We want to know too Sero." Jeremie said, which was followed by Yumi, Aelita, and William nodding in agreement. "I'll tell you guys once I figure out if it's really true. Ulrich, where does Odd usually go to let off steam?" I said, wanting to stop the questioning peacefully. Ulrich let out a quick sigh before answering another question of mine. "He mainly goes to the park and just walks around till he's calm enough." Ulrich replied. I had an idea spring into my head.

"We should take a look at Odd's sketchbook, he could be trying to send us messages in secret." I said, getting off of Jeremie's bed. I had another thought spring into my mind. "Yumi, Aelita, could you two look for Odd? If my hunch is right, we may still have time." I added, asking the two. "Up for a little Odd-hunt Yumi?" Aelita said to Yumi, who nodded with a smirk on her face. As the girls left, I looked at my boyfriend. "Jeremie, we need the superscan updated so it can detect partially activated towers also. I feel like XANA is using that trick again." I said to Jeremie, earning a nod from him. "Alright, but I can't guarantee it will be done just like that." He said, attempting to snap his fingers but instead failed miserably. Trying my best to not hold in my laughter, Jeremie blushed slightly. "Well then I guess it won't happen any time soon." I said, letting Jeremie get on the computer doing whatever he had to do to update the superscan. I felt Ulrich grab on my arm as he led me out of Jeremie's room while William simply followed, curious of what Ulrich wants with me.

"If you won't tell the others at least tell me and William what is going on Sero." Ulrich asked me when we were out of hearing distance from Jeremie. William didn't want to take any sides so he was just on the side, observing. I didn't want to tell him because I somewhat had an idea with how he would react, but the good in me won over safety for myself. "I think Odd is under XANA's control like I was before." I said, waiting for Ulrich to do something drastic. "You're going crazy Sero. How can you tell that XANA is inside him? Surely he would try to hide better after your little episode." Ulrich said with skepticism.

"Just trust me on this Ulrich. His eye color was black and red, his purple highlight had specks of black and that emotion in his voice didn't seem like his own." I replied honestly, looking at William for help. He finally helped by putting his hand on Ulrich's shoulder. "Ulrich. Me and Sero are trying to make this as easy as possible. How about Sero and I join the girls while you get Odd's sketchbook?" William said, pulling Ulrich's arm away from the wall near my head. "I want Odd to be safe as much as you do Ulrich, now let's go do our jobs and get this done without too much hassle." I said to him. Ulrich decided to move away and put his hand out. "Shake on it. For Odd"

"For Odd." I replied to Ulrich, shaking his hands as we went our separate ways with me and William going to the woods while Ulrich would look for Odd's sketchbook.

* * *

(Ulrich's P.O.V, First person.)

If there was a day that I wanted to be a dream, today would take the imaginary cake. After letting Sero and William join the girls to find Odd, I started to go to my room to look for Odd's sketchbook. As I was about to open my door, someone started tapping on my shoulder. Expecting the worst, I turned around to see Jim.

"Mr. Stern, do you mind telling me why you are outside of your room after hours?" He said with slight annoyance. I had to think of something to distract him since the others except Jeremie were somewhere in the woods of the school. "Whoops, sorry Jim. I just came back from the boy's showers when I heard from another student that a big fight was about to happen in the gym." I replied trying to sound as innocent and truthful as possible. Thankfully, it worked. "A fight in the gym, huh? Well thanks for telling me this, you're excused Stern." Jim said as he started to make his way to the Gymnasium. I snickered slightly as I used my room key to unlock the door, re-locking it when I was inside.

"Now to look for something that belongs to one of the laziest roommates ever..." I said with a sigh, looking at Odd's side of the room which had his sheets and two pillows haphazardly lying on the bed. Pushing my boredom away, I started moving Odd's stuff around to find his backpack or sketchbook. I smiled slightly when I found Odd's sketchbook partly hiding under his bed. I looked at Kiwi who was just sleeping peacefully in his open drawer.

I was extremely tempted to look inside the sketchbook since Sero said Odd was possibly trying to send us messages in the book. "Hell I'm his boyfriend, I think I have every right to look in it." I said to calm myself down. Kiwi lifted his head to look at me awkwardly before falling asleep again. I took in a deep breath as I opened the book half-way through to see some doodles of the Lyoko Warriors and Kiwi, both bringing slight smiles to my face. As I turned the page however, my smile became pure worry. The next page was completely covered by a red Eye of XANA, which was only half of the disturbing part. As my finger traced the design, the paint flaked off but on closer inspection, the red paint for XANA's Eye was dried-up blood. I nearly gagged in disgust at this morbid discovery. Was it Odd's blood? As I was about to close the book and find the others, I noticed small writing in ink near the bottom of the page.

_'I can't get XANA out of my head. Whenever I end up to fight him on Earth alone, he would try to get even more access to my mind, something which I have been barely been able to stop. I know that William truly didn't rape me, but XANA's subconscious inside my brain makes me think that he did in front of the others along with my "psychological" reactions. If anyone reads this, especially you Ulrich, my more-than-BFF; Help me. My mind is at its end. If what happened to Sero is in any way similar to what is happening to me since January, then XANA must have a partially activated tower or two in that new Sector of his. Tell Jeremie and the others, my mind must be my own before I no longer own it. -Odd, May 10th, 1:36 AM.'_

I stared blankly at the page. Odd made this message late at night so his finger would heal from the cut he made to paint the Eye of XANA, which explains why Odd was trying to hide his hands during our classes. I closed the sketchbook, looking at the cover. I walked by the room's window to see a blur of purple in the distant area of the forest running in the night. before walking away from the window, I saw a pink blur along with two all-black following close. Lagging behind was another blur with the top being black and the bottom blue. "Looks like William and Sero already found the girls. Now it's time for me to go down there to help get Odd back to his normal self." I said to myself as I checked outside the door. Jim was nowhere in sight, hopefully still believing my lie. After a good minute of stealthy running, I ended up by the woods close to the cafeteria. "I'm coming, Odd. We'll save you." I said as I ran into the forest.

* * *

(William's P.O.V, First person.)

"How can Odd keep up this speed?" I said to Yumi while we were following Odd through the woods. In hindsight, it was probably bad for me to come since I'm freaking the crap out of Odd. "I'm not surprised with how much food he eats. That's where all his energy comes from!" Yumi replied, taking in air between words. We both shared a slight laugh before we noticed that Aelita slowed down slightly to get within hearing distance of us. "I don't know why, but it looks like Odd is heading towards the manhole!" Aelita said. Her assumption was right as we saw in the distance that Odd opened the manhole and started to go down it. The three of us stopped at the manhole to wait for Sero. After about a good minute or so, Sero came running towards with Ulrich right behind him, who was holding what I assumed was Odd's sketchbook in his arms. Something about his pose told me that he was shocked by what was inside, but doesn't want to share what he found.

"So what's the situation?" Ulrich asked, looking at me, Yumi, and Aelita. I was about to talk before Yumi stole the opportunity. "It looks like Odd ran into the sewers, possibly to the factory for whatever reason." She said, not noticing that I was about to talk. "Then why we waiting here?" Sero asked as he was catching his breath. "Well, we DID wanted to wait for you Sero. So it's kinda your fault." Aelita said with a slight smirk on her face. Even with how long I have been away from the group, I've always enjoyed Aelita's humor and her damn-perfect timing. Her comment put a smile on Yumi's face.

"Enough time for chit-chat guys; Odd is in serious trouble and he needs us." Ulrich said as he started to climbed down the ladder with Odd's sketchbook tucked between his chest and right arm. We all looked at each other before we started to climb down, one by one. When we reached the bottom, Ulrich was already ahead of the group on his skateboard. When I looked at the one scooter and two skateboards, I realized a small problem. "Umm guys, one of us may have to stay behind, we have one too many warriors." I said, looking at the group. Before someone said something, I noticed Sero fiddling with his shoes when wheels suddenly popped out of the soles.

"I'm okay with no skateboard or scooter." Sero said as he sped off in his roller-skate shoes. Damn he's awesome.

* * *

(Odd's P.O.V, First person.)

While running away from my emotions, I couldn't help but look at my dorm window, catching a glimpse of Ulrich holding my sketchbook. Did Ulrich read it? Regardless, I need to try to solve this problem by myself, even if something horrible happens to me or the others. Letting my feet take me where I needed to go, I found myself at the supercomputer. "I really hope this is a good idea, unlike the rest of mine." I said to myself as I activated the delayed virtualization process. Once the timer started, I took the ladder down and entered the scanner directly opposite of the elevator. The doors closed after a few seconds. I took a deep breath.

"Identifying user..." A robotic voice said from what seemed like every direction.

"User identified: Odd Della Robbia." The voice continued as the scanner lit up with its bright lights.

"Transfer; Odd." I instinctively closed my eyes as I felt a blast of wind hit my svelte frame.

"Scanner; Odd." My knuckles relaxed up as my hands opened up. I felt my body turning as the scanner did its job.

"Virtualization." All went black.

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And there we go, the eighteenth chapter is now finished. All is not what it seems in Odd's crazy mind of his. Can he fix it on his own or does have to suck up his pride and get help from his friends? You will have to wait till the 30th to find out. :p

Also: My schedule for uploading will be the 12th-16th of each month then the 28th-2nd each month.

Review, favorite, follow. I like them however you give it. (As long they aren't just trolling or flamers.)


	19. The Unfortunate Mistake

Hello everyone, the nineteenth chapter is up early! We left off when Odd goes to Lyoko on his own to fix his problem by himself, but will he need the help of his friends? Will Odd ever be able to keep his mind away from XANA? Read on for this epic tale to unfold further!

NOTE: I will plan to end this story on the 20th chapter, BUT I will upload another story as a second part which was a time-skip of approx. a few months or so, making it the next school year. So once this story hits the twentieth chapter, pay attention for the next story coming out, which I plan to call "The Change of Our Unfortunate Lives", which will most likely be rated T until I ultimately insert some lemon in it.

Side note: Since this part of the story will end on the twentieth chapter, I can assure you that Odd's little episode with XANA will be done by then (hopefully.). This indirectly means that chapter 20 could easily be one of my longest chapters, but who knows for now.

-Jish (My loyal reviewer :]) "_really good chapter. The blood thing kind of freaked me out. I'm not imagining things, right? How come nobody noticed the XANA-changed Odd except for Sero? Everyone noticed it in Sero immediately, if memory serves correctly. It just seems kind of odd (no pun intended) that nobody else would notice."_

-I would say the main reason only Sero noticed XANA's presence in Odd was that XANA was just a subconscious change of reaction while Sero's case became full-on control. Another point is that Sero has ADHD, so he pays further attention to details than the others did. And my last point would be that Sero learned from (unwanted) personal experience, so he saw similarities between himself and Odd. Another reason is that XANA's slight influence only showed when Odd suffers his "problems".

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

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(Sero's P.O.V, First person.)

As I was lagging behind the others due to my Asthma and generally poor physique, I saw Ulrich behind me. Slowing down to talk to him, I saw what was possibly Odd's sketchbook in his hands. As we got within talking distance, I saw Ulrich's face had a slight scare in it. Was there something else in the sketchbook? I decided to be the first one to talk.

"So you found Odd's sketchbook? What's in there that can help us understand what's happening?" I asked Ulrich who became slightly anxious when I mentioned the sketchbook. "I don't want to talk about it in detail, so I'll just say what it meant; Odd has XANA in his head like you did before, and he knows that William didn't rape him, but XANA makes him act like he did in front of others. And to top it off, Odd thinks that he may not have much time left." Ulrich said, keeping Odd's sketchbook close to his chest. I decided not to push the issue further than it needed to. "But can you promise not to tell the others please? I want to keep this between us and Odd for now." Ulrich said. I gave him a simple yet understanding nod to him. "promise." I said to him.

"Well let's hurry up, or the others may leave us behind!" I said as we resumed running to the manhole, where the others were waiting.

* * *

After meeting with the others, we made our way to the factory. In no time at all, the five of us were in the elevator. Aelita stepped out of the elevator and sat at the Supercomputer.

"I will need to first see where Odd put himself on Lyoko first before we go in heads-first. For now, wait at the scanners until I can track which Sector Odd is in." Aelita said as she put her attention towards the computer. William decided to press the button for the elevator to go down to the scanner room. Once the elevator reached the scanners, we got out when we heard Aelita's voice from above "According to the virtualization history, Odd put himself in Sector 5. Yumi, William, and Ulrich; you will go first, then Sero and I will used the delayed virtualization to meet with you." we looked at each other as the others went in the scanners. As the lights of the scanners went on, I faintly heard Aelita typing above. When I looked back at the scanners, they were open and ready for me and Aelita.

"Ready to go Sero? The delayed virtualization is starting." Aelita said to me as she went inside a scanner. I nodded to her as I went in the scanner opposite of her. The scanner doors closed after a few moments. While my claustrophobia kicked in, I closed my eyes while following William's advice of taking in slow, calmed breaths to battle my fear.

"Identifying users..." A computer-like voice said from somewhere.

"Users identified: Aelita Schaeffer and Sero [REDACTED]." I grinned to myself about Jeremie's choice for what the computer identified me as. I closed my eyes slightly tighter to counter the bright lights.

"Transfer; Aelita and Sero." I continued my rhythmic breathing as the voice continued, thankfully it was working as my body wasn't freaking out as much as it would. I couldn't help but shiver at the air going around my body, which also moved my streak of long green hair into my eyes.

"Scanner; Aelita and Sero." I started to imagine myself in a blank white room, a place which seemed to have no kind of restrictive walls at all. My mind was once more in complete equilibrium with William's help.

"Virtualization." It all went black once more.

* * *

(William's P.O.V, First person.)

As I gained consciousness, my body landed on the circular floor of the Arena. Looking to my left and right, Yumi and Ulrich finished virtualizing and landed smoothly on the ground. soon after, the Overwing and Overbike virtualized in front of their respective owners. "Hey what gives Aelita? Don't I get a vehicle or what?" I said with slight annoyance. In response, Aelita's voice boomed from above "According to the Supercomputer William, you should still have your super-smoke ability from when XANA controlled you. Now if you three can excuse me, Sero and I will join you shortly." Aelita said before we heard the sound of the microphone being removed.

"Well let's see if I did keep some of XANA's powers..." I said to myself with slightly anxiety. "Here goes nothing; Super-smoke!" I yelled out, becoming my gaseous form. Almost instantly, I felt my body very slowly breaking apart. Getting weaker by the second, I imagined myself in my human form, which pulled me back together. "Nice to see that XANA left you with a good-bye gift." Ulrich said with slight distaste to me. I simply ignored his comment and looked at my blade. While the Eye of XANA was absent from the blade and my Lyoko costume, both still held their overall theme of black. I looked above and behind me to see Aelita and a figure resembling a cloaked, gray figure covered with complex green patterns. In its left hand was a scythe with an emerald blade. I continued staring at the cloaked figure as it and Aelita landed on the floor.

"Sero is that you? If so, you look like a complete badass." I said to the figure, which looked at me with an empty hood instead of some skull or head, scaring me for a moment. "Yep it's me in the ghostly flesh." Sero said in a relaxed tone, putting his scythe over his shoulder. "Now that the five of us are here Aelita, what now?" I said to her as she activated her wings. "According to the computer, Odd used the information tunnel to travel to the new Sector. We need to hurry before the tunnel closes." Aelita said as we waited for the path to open. Yumi and Ulrich got on their vehicles while Sero activated wings of his own, similar to Aelita's but instead with a jade-green hue.

"Okay everyone, on to the Celestrial Dome!" Sero said as he led the way.

* * *

(Odd's P.O.V, First person.)

As I entered the newest Sector which I took to calling the Grave Sector (Original, right?), I noticed something different. The most obvious difference was that instead of Sero's seven towers, there was only one marginally active tower. The second main difference is that this area seemed almost new; The main island chunk broke off differently, and the graves and dead Yew trees seemed more... ancient? I could tell something was different about it, but I couldn't exactly figure out what. Looking at the sky, I saw that the eternal midnight black had changed to a deep twilight shade of purple. Sighing to myself, I made my Overboard accelerate towards the lone tower, yet never making any process at all. I noticed this after about a solid minute of useless travel.

"So this is XANA's trick that Yumi and Aelita were talking about..." I muttered to myself as I landed on the ground. During the lunch after the return to the past, the girls described to the group the unique qualities of the Sector, including the inability to reach the tower via air, the various deadly traps instead of monsters, and the creepy graves that refill themselves when someone comes close to falling inside of them. As I started walking towards the tower, I heard an unwelcome voice.

""It is so good to talk to you again. Tell me, how has it been?"" XANA said, mocking me. I simply ignored him until XANA launched a headache at me, making me get on my knees in pain. ""You know that its rude to ignore guest."" XANA said, steadily making the pain worse. "Why should I care about you XANA? All I want is to do is fix my brain and get you out of our lives faster." I said with one hand on my head and the other on the ground, helping me slowly stand up. ""It's all for simple preparations. While my plan with the second slave... backfired, I assure you that I will succeed without failure."" XANA said, lessening the headache's intensity. Is he toying with me by weakening the pain? I can't leave these chances to waste. I started to run on all fours to the tower, dodging traps, trees, and unfriendly graves on the way. "Answer me this XANA; why go after me and Sero if the only one you truly need is Aelita? Shouldn't an A.I like you instantly know the best path to take?" I said mentally to the evil entity of Lyoko as I leaped over a row of tripwire and graves.

""There is a difference between best and most rewarding path. Going directly for the girl would require more effort, so why not take down a few of her lackeys? I almost got away with my first slave until you freed him from my hidden tower in the Ice Sector."" XANA said with a surprisingly calm tone, which scared me. He either only told me this because he knew I wouldn't be able to tell the others, or he may have plans for me. As the pattern of traps, graves and cracks in the ground tired me, I climbed one of the larger tombs and started jumping tomb-to-tomb which spared me of XANA's traps. As I continued my tomb-hopping, I found myself stranded on a rather large tomb which suddenly became isolated from the others. XANA made a _tsk-tsk_ sound to me.

""You don't deserve an easy path of freedom. Now for you to go into time-out."" XANA said with fake disappointment. I heard a laughter echo through the air as the top of the tomb vanished and reappeared, trapping me inside. My only lights were the minuscule cracks and openings by the closed stone doors. I clawed at the door fruitlessly, wanting freedom. After a while, I stopped clawing to conserve my energy and sat down with my head on my shoulders. "Damn you Odd Della Robbia, this is what you get for trying to be Mr. Bigshot when you can't even deactivate the tower you came here for." I said to myself as I started to cry, knowing that I purposely put myself at risk for the sake of pride.

* * *

(Ulrich's P.O.V, Third person.)

"So this is what the Sector looks like... I have to say, it really brings out the fear in the air." William said judgmentally as he got out of his super-smoke form when we reached solid ground. "Yes, it's very nice that I get to view this Sector longer than the last time that I got devirtualized by Mr. Reaper over here. No offense." Ulrich said, casually referring to Sero. "Don't blame me, blame the psychotic A.I I had in my brain." Sero said, defending himself from Ulrich's calm sarcasm.

"Is it just me or does the place look different?" Yumi said as she inspected some of the nearby graves and tombs. "Well I don't remember the sky being such a dark shade of purple, it was pure black when we were saving Sero." Aelita said, looking at the sky. "Thanks by the way." Sero said as he looked at the activated tower in the far distance. The lone tower had more white fog than red. Aelita simply nodded with a smile at Sero's general direction. "Hey wasn't there seven towers last time? Why is XANA only using one?" Sero said with confusion as his empty hood faced the single tower. "Well in Odd's sketchbook he did say that XANA acted like a subconscious causing fake thoughts and ideas about William instead of complete control like he did to you, Sero. So why would he need more than one tower?" Ulrich said as he looked at the path ahead.

"Well let's go kill monsters, save Odd, and beat XANA again." William said with slight cockiness that only showed when he was inside of Lyoko. "Sorry William but no monsters here, only traps, traps, and more traps along with refilling graves at no extra cost." Aelita said, bursting William's bubble for battle. the others shared a slight smirk at Aelita's good-natured humour, which was leagues above Odd's. Sero momentarily activated his wings, going high in the air before descending back down. "Well it looks like the best path to the tower is directly straight." Sero said, inspecting some of the nearby traps to see how they would work. As the five were about to go ahead, they heard a voice from the Supercomputer.

"Good to see all of you in the new Sector. I have finished the update to the Superscan, which will give me time to find Odd." Jeremie said as he attached the microphone to his ear. "This-this can't be right..." Jeremie said to himself with slight confusion. "What's wrong Jeremie, is something happening on your end?" Yumi said with her hands near her fans. "It's no wonder why the Supercomputer can't map out the Sector; the entire place is a living program in the sense that it changes each time." Jeremie said with wonder, causing all of us to look at our feet. Is this the reason XANA doesn't (Or couldn't?) have any monsters in this 'Sector', just to keep a giant, island-like program to hold Towers and control for him? "Calm down guys. As long as we focus on saving Odd and deactivating the tower, maybe whatever we are standing on won't notice us." Sero said, refocusing everyone to the task ahead.

"You're right Ser, now let's do this; For Odd!" William shouted, bringing our spirits up as he held his zweihander in the air.

"For Odd!" Everyone said, including Jeremie from the safety of the Supercomputer.

* * *

The nineteenth chapter is now finished! And with only one chapter to go before 'The Change of Our Unfortunate Lives' starts being made, the thing this story needs is a good- no, a GREAT ending.

No spoilers this time and I most likely won't give any for the next story.

Favorite, Follow, Review. Do what you want, and do it proudly!


	20. The Unfortunate Conclusion

Hello everyone to this special moment as the last chapter for this part of the story is now up! With XANA trapping Odd in one of the many tombs, will the other Lyoko Warriors be able to deactivate the tower? Which warrior will be the unlucky one to go out first? Read on to find out the epic conclusion of the first of part of my story (which I honestly don't know how long I'll make, most likely until I lose inspiration).

Note: The release deadline for "The Change of Our Unfortunate Lives" will be at the middle of August if worst case scenarios happen like writer's block, inability to get access to the Internet, and/or emergency family issues. This does not mean the story comes out on August 15th or 16th but hopefully BEFORE that date. I'll try to aim for the 1st to the 5th for the new story upload.

Secondary Note: With my (last!) school year starting on the 15th of August, story updates MAY be affected, but if I keep to my schedule and constantly find inspiration, uploads should keep their tempo intact. But as I've said several times before; Personal life takes priority.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way. I only own Sero.**

* * *

(Sero's P.O.V, First person.)

After our emotionally uplifting cheer to help Odd, we slowly made our way through the many traps of the Sector. We decided to split off into two groups, mine including Ulrich and William. The two gave brief looks at each other, namely from Ulrich. "So has anything happened between you two since Odd got his mind messed up by XANA?" I asked to the two. "No, happened at all." They said in near unison. They gave the other a slightly surprised glance before moving on, carefully avoiding barely noticeable tripwire which I called out. "Hey Ser, do you have any special powers on Lyoko besides those wings I saw earlier?" William asked me as he slightly sped up his walking to my pace.

"Two others in particular, but one is more of a drawback; The main ability is to become an invisible ghost, which decreases my 'Sanity' meter. One of the effects causes me go into a bloodlust, making me attack the closest living thing." I said, momentarily popping in and out of my ethereal form to show William. Even in that short second of time, the voices clawed at my mind and insecurities, making me shudder. "Aelita and I can confirm the bloodlust part by personal experience." Ulrich commented, gaining an unseen smirk from me. "The other 'power' which Jeremie hasn't been able to figure out is that I start with only 50 Lifepoints instead of the usual 100, which makes me rely on my wings and short uses of my ghostly form for protection." I added as we successfully lept over a suspicious pile of dead leaves gathered between two large tombs.

"Not to sound off-topic, but didn't Aelita also mention a certain fog that tried to stop her near the tower?" Ulrich said, pulling my attention away from me talking about my powers. As if on cue, a mysterious fog started to form from all directions. Ready for possible combat, the three of us put our backs facing each other with our weapons ready in their owner's hands. As the fog suddenly thickened around us, I couldn't see anything. Backing up for protection, I gasped slightly when I didn't bump into either William nor Ulrich. Surely they couldn't have gone far, right? I heard unfamiliar voices coming from the fog, but never from the same direction.

'You are always a failure...'

'Who wants a loner?'

'You never had true friends or love...'

That last voice got on my nerve. I slashed angrily at the fog, letting my frustration guide my attacks when the last slice was blocked by a metal object, judging by the clanking sound. 'You are a puppet to both XANA and the other Lyoko warriors, and have never been anything better in your short life...' There was no way I would let some fog get the best of me. I pulled my scythe back from the fog into the safety of my barely visible area of vision. "Get out X-" "Take that, you damn fog!" I got interrupted by what was definitely Ulrich's voice in front of me as a familiar katana pierced my chest. The fog suddenly scattered into thin air, showing William right behind Ulrich, who had his katana up to the handle inside of me. "Um, whoops. Sorry, Sero." Ulrich simply said as I started to scatter into blue data. "No probl-" I started to say before the devirtualization caught up to where my head would be.

* * *

As I gathered my conscious, I found myself in my scanner which just opened up. Maybe I'm starting to get used to devirtualization, hence the lack of me going unconscious. As if life wanted to hate me more, I felt a sharp pain start in my chest, most likely from Ulrich stabbing me. I made my way to the elevator holding my chest with my right hand. Pressing the button, the doors closed as the elevator made its ascent to the Supercomputer Room. When the door opened, I saw only Jeremie's feet while the rest of him was obscured by his chair. Was I the first one to go? I walked to him to see if he had anything to share, removing my hand from my stomach as my adrenaline numbed the pain away.

"Any reason you weren't talking to us on Lyoko after that cheer Jeremie?" I said to him as I put my hand on his shoulder, looking over at the computer to see what he was doing. The computer had several screens of moving data with the main display of Odd's Lyoko figure with a large red exclamation point over the avatar's head. I looked down to Jeremie, wondering why he didn't react to my touch, only to see him unconscious and slightly slouched over. My breathing and heart sped up suddenly at the sight of my knocked-out boyfriend. Looking all around the room, I saw another Jeremie, which I hoped was the real one, waiting by the elevator. "Don't even think about warning your band of misfits, lest you want to suffer worse than your 'love'." The Spectre said, seemingly indifferent about what was happening on Lyoko.

Revenge built up inside of me, making me thoughtlessly rush at the Spectre, only for it to extend its arm and shock me in the chest. One of the stray lightning struck my glasses, snapping them cleanly in half. I gasped at this as my world suddenly blurred, something which the Spectre noticed to some extent. "Useless objects to hide imperfections. Why try to improve something, or someone, which is imperfect when you can make it better?" The Spectre said as he let me go of his electric grasp, but not before two of the lightning bolts jumped up to my eyes, causing me to go nearly blind. I hoped with all my willpower that this was only temporary, if not at least curable.

I weakly fell to the ground, only aware of the faintest outlines of my surroundings. I wanted to cry but each movement of my eye stung me, forcing me to hold my emotions back. I heard the Spectre chuckle to itself as it pushed Jeremie out of the chair, forcing me to hear him hit the hard floor. "Now it's time to introduce the bug." The Spectre said as it made the sound of fingers touching keys. My body calmed slightly when I heard a scanner below me open, knowing that someone would help soon.

But who was it?

* * *

(Ulrich's P.O.V, First person.)

"Stay together William, or else we'll get lost like Sero just did." I whispered to William, who made sure that we kept physical contact. Sure it was a bit awkward, but we needed to stay together. Voices called to both of us, judging by William's shivering, but these voices were rather different from the ones Aelita described.

'Your friend is far away...'

'Trapped in a prison of death...'

'Isolated from the once-living branches of life...'

'Sacrifices must be made...'

"Did the fog just tell us where Odd was?" William said, keeping his back against mine. I found this increasingly confusing since Aelita described the fog as "Manipulative" and "XANA-influenced", not helpful or informative. "Whatever the fog told us, I'm not comfortable about the 'sacrifice' part." I replied, watching some of the fog condense into an unknown figure. I watched as the figure motioned some fog to transform, becoming a large, crook, which rested in its left hand. I watched the figure as it swung almost randomly, as if it was trying to scare me. When the crook came close, I blocked it with both katanas. I got confused at the sound of a 'clang' as much as the foggy figure, who drew his weapon back, holding it close to his chest. I took this opportunity to ready myself, looking for the weakest point. I took my chance and quickly stabbed the figure in the chest, plunging my katana up to the hilt inside of my target.

"Get out X-" "Take that, you damn fog!" I interrupted the menacing figure when the fog suddenly dispersed, showing Sero. In the moment before I said anything, I heard the fog's voice echo back into my head 'Sacrifices must be made...'. I silently cursed to myself that Sero was the one that _had_ to go out. After the short time of less than an instant did all of this happen. I looked to where Sero's eyes would be, my face still holding the surprise. "Um, whoops. Sorry, Sero." I said innocently to Sero as his body was already scattering into vanishing data. "No probl-" Sero started to say before the devirtualization caught up to his hood. I sighed as I saw the tower closer than before the fog caught up to us. The sky took on a slightly harsher tone of black as if the Sector could become any darker. "William, you there? The fog is gone." I said as I turned around, putting my hand on his shoulder. He jumped slightly at the contact, turning around to meet my gaze.

"Sorry Ulrich, I was spacing out for a bit there." William said with barely noticeable hesitation. I simply looked at him briefly before we continued our way to the Tower, which slowly became more activated each second.

* * *

(Odd's P.O.V, Third(-ish) person.)

Odd looked at his surroundings, which still consisted of a sealed tomb. The only 'light' came from the small cracks in the aged stone. He didn't know how long he was crying for, but he remembered hearing Jeremie say something a few minutes ago, implying that his friends were coming to help him. Wanting to escape, Odd went to the largest crack in his stone prison, which the opening was barely larger than a €2 coin. He tried his best to peer out of the crevice of the dusty stone, which barely gave any reasonable vision. "There's nothing I can do to help my friends on Lyoko..." Odd muttered to himself as he walked around, keeping his muscles loose and ready for a surprise. Odd's mind kept repeating the last two words.

"Is it really **that** simple?" Odd said mentally to himself, thinking about his insane (Normal for him, though.), but slightly logical plan. XANA never said anything about a potential risk if Odd got devirtualized, but if Odd offed himself on Lyoko, the others could fail due to being one purple cat short. XANA's voice hasn't said anything before Odd started crying, so he assumed that the evil computer was busy with the others. Odd looked at his left paw as he cocked it back, smiling slightly as he heard the sound of his Laser Arrows being reloaded. Pointing his left arm to his chest, he was about to fire when he heard some voices gather by him. "Are you sure this is where Odd is being kept?" A voice similar to Aelita's said near the door of the tomb. Who was she talking to? Odd tried to yell in hopes of them hearing him, but his voice failed when he heard the next person talk.

"Ulrich and I are sure, that's what the fog said to us, although it did cost us Sero." Another voice said, causing his mind to go haywire. Odd's subconscious XANA forced him to choke on his words, making non-suicidal escape impossible. Odd brought his arm back pointing at his chest, shooting three times. The last shot came right when the door to the tomb crumbled into dust, making him look at the group, which consisted of Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich, and a fourth person with only his rather large weapon visible. Odd devirtualized right in front of them, gaining surprise from them. Odd simply smiled as the blue squares caught up with his face.

* * *

(Odd's P.O.V, First person.)

I felt my body back on Earth, inside of the scanner which I virtualized myself in. I absentmindedly put my right hand on my chest when the pain from my Laser Arrows wanted to become known. When the scanner door opened, I noticed the elevator sparking with electricity. "Did XANA attack Jeremie and Sero?" I quietly said to myself as I chose the ladder as a safe alternate. Climbing up the ladder, sounds of frantic clicking and pressing of keys entered my ears. I sped my ascent up since even Einstein couldn't type that fast (Knowing him, he would wish for that.). When I dismounted the ladder when I reached the Supercomputer floor, I saw Jeremie unconscious on the floor while Sero aimlessly crawled around without his glasses. Looking at the chair, I saw an obvious Spectre of Jeremie doing something to the computer. Since the evil Einstein (Hopefully.) didn't notice me yet, I quietly made my way to Sero.

"Sero, what are you doing on the floor? I know your eyesight isn't that bad." I quietly said to him as I kept a wary eye on the oblivious Spectre. "Odd, is that you? I can barely see anything since the Polymorph nearly blinded me." Sero said as he stared at the direction of my voice, giving me a scare. His green irises were cloudy and unfocused, similar to what a blind person's eyes would look like, except that Sero's eyes kept his color of green instead of an emotionless gray. If this was permanent, Jeremie would go crazy or something. I pushed those thoughts out of my head as I refocused on Sero. "What happened to y-" "Don't worry about me Odd, just get the Spectre. That's the most important thing now." Sero said, interrupting me. "Besides, I'm slowly regaining my sight. But I still won't be much help for now, the Spectre doesn't know that I'm conscious so Jeremie and I are safe." Sero continued, putting his head back on the hard floor. He gave me a thumbs-up, assuring me that he was alright.

"Hey XANA! I heard that you like being beaten on Lyoko _and_ on Earth, so can you tell me which one you prefer the most?" I shouted to the Spectre as I got into a fighting pose. The Spectre glanced at the source of the noise, dismissing me as if I wasn't there. Whatever the Spectre was doing to the Supercomputer, it was important enough for it to ignore me. "Okay Odd, time to go a bit crazier than normal..." I said to myself, moving into a suitable place for attack while the Spectre continued ignoring me. "ATTACK!" I yelled as I dived at the surprised Spectre, making it nearly fall on Jeremie. While the Spectre flickered below my body, I saw Sero near the wall on his knees, using his hands as his guide. 'Are you crazy!?' I mouthed to him before remembering two things about Sero: One, he can barely see at the moment and two, he can't read lips.

Nonetheless, the Spectre was very mad about the wonderful _svelte_ body laying on top of it, sending out a sudden shockwave, knocking me off him. "Note to self: Remind Einstein to make some non-conductive clothing for the group." I said as I got back to my feet. Looking back at the annoyed Spectre, it transformed into a remarkably similar person, wearing his clothes purple and his hair pointing high and over-gelled. "Really XANA? You have to make me hurt such a _beautiful_ person?" I said with sarcastic negativity as I noticed Sero sneaking behind the Spectre, hopefully with better eyesight than a minute or two ago. The Spectre simply looked at me as it charged an electric ball aimed for my chest. "I have done enough damage to both of you, former slaves. Use that ridiculous program that rewinds time if you think it will fix anything anymore, my task is complete." The Spectre said as it transformed into a black fog, letting the electric ball fizzle out of existence. I watched the evil smoke as it fled from view.

"Jeremie, are you there? It looks like the Tower deactivated itself!" I heard Aelita say from the microphone, which was on the keyboard. I looked at Jeremie who had Sero trying his best to wake him up, which left me to answer my friends at the Grave Sector (I need to see if the others like that name.). Attaching the mic to my ear, I talked to the group "Odd here, something weird happened up here so I'm materializing all of you. Side note though; The elevator may still be electrified so use the ladder." I said as I reached for the 'basic' Supercomputer manual that Jeremie and Aelita made for us in case of situations like these. After a good two or three minutes, everyone on Lyoko came back safe as usual. Ulrich was the first to come up by the ladder while Aelita and Yumi shortly followed. At this point, Jeremie was awake and was told of what happened along with the others excluding the person waiting below. "So how's your sight Sero, still blind as a bat?" I said to him as he picked up his glasses and fixed them with some spare tape he had in his pocket (Don't ask me why he carries tape...). He looked directly at me as if his clouded irises couldn't move.

"Much better than a while ago, but I think I got a mild case of Tunnel Vision now." Sero said as he cleaned his glasses with the bottom of his shirt. "But let's return to the past and get this done." He added on as he put his glasses back on. Jeremie only nodded as he typed in the proper codes. "Return to the past now." Jeremie said as he pressed the last key, which caused the hologram of Lyoko to emit a reassuring white light. The light covered all of us, the factory, and everything else in sight.

* * *

(Sero's P.O.V, First person.)

After the return to the past, I found myself waking up to my alarm clock, which said 6:00 AM, MAY 10th. As I looked around my room, I still had a small border of pure black in my vision. This is **bad**, the time reversion didn't remove my Tunnel Vision. I tried looking around while keeping my head still, but my eyes strained in discomfort against such an action. I looked into my room's mirror and inspected my eyes. My eyes retained their green tone, but each iris had a blurry, unfocused look to them. I definitely now have Tunnel Vision, which made my mind echo back to what the spectre said in the factory 'Use that ridiculous program that rewinds time if you think it will fix anything anymore...'.

That was XANA's true motive behind the attack, using Odd as a distraction while he tampered with the return to the past program. If Odd wasn't there to stop the Spectre, XANA most likely would've removed the program completely. Nonetheless, a bugged time reversion could spell disasters such as possibly fatal wounds not being healed. I quickly grabbed my phone and readied a voice message to the group, including William. If the Tower in the Sector got deactivated, then Odd _should_ have no more problems with William. Pressing the button to start the message, I managed to say the following words;

"We have a big problem, meet in the cafeteria at our usual table as soon as possible."

* * *

Almost immediately did everyone, excluding Odd and I, started getting edgy with William, It was Odd out of the group who stopped the conflict. Yumi and (Especially.) Ulrich were slightly shocked by Odd defending William, who knew the true events firsthand. After that got resolved, I told Jeremie and the others about what happened; The Spectre tampering with the time reversion program, and my Tunnel Vision which still affected me even though it shouldn't be happening to me. Despite this being urgent, we decided to wait till after classes to start fixing the program, mainly because XANA can't start another attack so early.

After another boring day of class, we went to the Factory. After we waited for Jeremie to do whatever he had to, he told us the grim news. The program was tampered by XANA, and it could easily take several months to fix the return to the past. This indirectly told me that I would have to live with Tunnel Vision for the rest of my life. Even with all the events that have happened I looked back at what I was: Alone, friendless, isolated, an orphan. I found out something about my life; the Lyoko warriors are more than my friends, they are my family.

* * *

AN: And it is truly complete! With the return to the past program tampered so that people keep their injuries, the group will have a new priority along with getting rid of XANA. This will most likely become the main plot of 'The Change of Our Unfortunate Lives.', with a good possibility of another side-plot or two happening for several Lyoko Warriors (no promises though. :P).

Review, favorite, and follow! Each little bit of constructive criticism helps the new story come out faster!


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